How a fight over DEI got mixed up in fallout from the Trump assassination attempt

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DEI has become a boogeyman for some people in the corporate world over the past few months, but few would have expected a debate over hiring practices to become part of the fallout from the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate.

A gunman opened fire at a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, shooting Donald Trump in the ear, and killing another man. Two other victims were critically injured, and the suspected shooter is dead.

As the gravity of the horrific events sank in over the weekend, some right wing pundits and politicians quickly shifted gears to point blame at an unlikely source: the DEI strategy of the Secret Service , the law enforcement agency tasked with protecting politicians, and women agents in particular.

“DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe,” conservative political commentator Benny Johnson wrote on social media platform X on Sunday, specifically referencing a “gaggle of female Secret Service Agents.” The post referenced a short video clip showing agents surrounding Trump as he was bundled into a car. Sitting Republican Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) added to the chorus, calling Secret Service director Kimberly A. Cheatle a “ DEI hire .”

Cheatle, a longtime member of the Secret Service, has been a vocal advocate for more diverse hiring within the agency, publicly setting a goal that 30% of recruits to be women by 2030.

DEI has had quite a year. Even though it remains widely popular among U.S. employees, and prominent HR leaders have committed to stand by their goals , it has suffered serious attacks from billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Ackman . And in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action , some companies are quietly ( or loudly ) changing their programs and policies .

The Secret Service should and will face many questions over the coming weeks and months about what went wrong in Pennsylvania on Saturday. But the knee-jerk reaction to blame DEI in the wake of this weekend’s political violence, and the urge to make women the focus of vitriol, is deeply disturbing. It's the starkest example to date of how what was once a mundane hiring practice has become weaponized within the U.S. political discourse—with no signs of slowing down. Unfortunately, we're likely to see more in the months to come.

Azure Gilman
azure.gilman@fortune.com

Today's edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com