The Secret Service, once synonymous with steely professionalism and elite readiness, is now grappling with a credibility crisis — one not just born from a catastrophic breach on a Pennsylvania stage, but from an internal culture that, under the guise of “progress,” may have sacrificed performance for politics.
At the center of the latest revelation is a female agent once assigned to the protection detail of Ella Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter. According to RealClearPolitics, the agent failed multiple physical fitness tests — a clear-cut requirement for any agent in the field.
Instead of being reassigned based on merit or standards, she was retained and allowed to moonlight as a plus-size model, describing herself publicly as a “body-positive advocate” and fashion influencer. In one photoshoot, she posed under the tagline: “Undercover, But Never Underdressed.”
This isn’t just an optics problem. It’s a mission problem. Protection detail isn’t a runway gig — it’s a job where lives depend on whether you can sprint, react, and shield in a split-second. Failing those tests isn’t a harmless checkbox — it’s a disqualifier. And yet, under former Director Kimberly Cheatle, this agent was reassigned to a support role rather than removed entirely, sparking deep concerns from inside the agency.
Standards lapsed at Secret Service during the Biden administration so much so that an agent–assigned to protect VP Harris’ family–not only never passed a physical fitness test but was allowed to moonlight as a plus-sized model, @SusanCrabtree exclusively reports. pic.twitter.com/Hxg4PEijXe
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) October 22, 2025
Cheatle’s tenure was marked by an aggressive push toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), a philosophy that — when misapplied — can place identity politics ahead of operational competence.
According to RCP, under her leadership, agents in minority groups were encouraged to use internal DEI chatrooms to discuss workplace struggles. While well-intentioned in theory, such initiatives ring hollow if they fail to maintain the core of what the Secret Service is: an elite protective force, not a corporate HR department.
The result? By the time Cheatle resigned in July — amid the fallout from the assassination attempt on President Trump — women made up 24% of the agency’s field agents. But the real question is not about the percentage, but whether those positions were filled based on merit, readiness, and capability — or on a quota checklist.
Cheatle’s departure was seen as overdue by critics on both sides of the aisle. Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t mince words: “Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency.” That trust has been shaken — not by the presence of women, minorities, or advocates in the ranks — but by the suggestion that those qualifications have become more important than whether an agent can do the job when lives are on the line.
