Female Agents in Butler Did Pretty Well

Internet armchair-expert rabble-rouser critics should give it a rest.

To undermine Democrats’ DEI agenda and now-former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle’s reported desire that 30 percent of personnel hired for the agency be women, or just to rile people up and generate clicks, various people on social media sites have ridiculed the three female agents who were seen in the videos with President Trump after shots were fired during his Butler, Pa., rally.

DEI and non-merit-based hiring quotas are objectionable. And yes, the female agents in question were too short to cover someone as tall as Trump, though not if they and their male counterparts had bent him over at the waist, head down, and manhandled him to the get-away vehicle, instead of allowing him to fist-pump for the now-famous photo.

But, as shown in this video, the blonde-haired female agent, like several male agents, was on top of Trump within seconds of him hitting the deck, while bullets were still being fired, and she stayed beside him, on his right side, with his arm over her shoulder, in what could have still been the line of fire, the whole way to the get-away vehicle.

And, if you drag the cursor in the video to watch it in slow-motion, it seems to show that the women performed well during the rest of the incident. The video’s audio track is intended to ridicule the women with the theme song from the old Charley’s Angels TV show, so turn it off. (The attempt at ridicule is a flop, because the three female characters in that show were competent.)

Anyway, as you’ll see, there were at least eight agents with Trump, surrounding him the whole way. As they approached the SUV, the group is led by a female agent with a her hair tied behind her back in a sort of ponytail.

A male agent has already taken position at, and opened, the SUV’s door. He may have opened it a bit prematurely, exposing the driver and vehicle interior, but from this camera angle we cannot see what he sees, and there are two helmeted, rifle-armed officers/agents there, facing outward to guard against threats from that direction, and what appears to be a section of the bleachers serving as an obstruction, so criticism of the agent manning the SUV door is likely not warranted.

Once the group is at the SUV, the ponytailed female agent smoothly peels to the right, to get out of the way, so the agents behind her can shove Trump inside. She then correctly faces outward, handgun drawn, finger correctly off the trigger, initially in a not-quite low ready position (which probably should have been lower), in case of an approach by another threat. By that point, she has seen the two previously-mentioned officers/agents with rifles, and a third one who had been providing security to the rear of the group during its movement to the SUV.

She then correctly lowers her handgun to what the Army calls “collapsed low ready” and others call “Sul,” the Portugese word for “south,” to avoid pointing it at fellow agents and any innocent by-standers that might have been in the area. The rifle-armed officer/agent to her right is doing the same.

She holsters her handgun (as the female agent nearer the vehicle tries to as well) before the SUV’s door is shut, possibly assuming that the officers/agents with rifles were providing sufficient security in their direction.

Throughout and after the door is shut, the ponytailed agent keeps looking in every direction for additional threats, and continues to do so as she moves alongside the SUV on foot, as it departs. Commendable, I’d say.

The second female agent is the blonde over whose shoulder Trump had his right arm as he was moved from the podium. She stays with Trump until the group reaches the SUV, at which point she lowers herself to disengage from him so the other agents can shove him into the back seat. (They should have kept his head down as they did so.) You can see her hair just over the left shoulder of the male agent whose back is facing the camera.

After two of the male agents follow Trump into the SUV, she uses her body to cover the still-open door.

Once the door is closed, she faces outward to look for additional threats. The internet armchair experts later faulted her for putting her sunglasses back on, but she had been holding them in her right hand, and putting them back on meant she could see better and again have two free hands.

She didn’t draw her handgun, assuming she had one, but the same can be said for the male agents. Perhaps per standard procedure, they focused on moving Trump to the vehicle (having handguns out when compressed together in a pack would present safety concerns) and relied on the three rifle-armed officers/agents to provide security. And like the ponytailed agent, she stays with the vehicle on foot as it departs, continuing to look outward.

The third female agent is seen at the rear of the group escorting Trump. Her handgun is also not drawn. Because she is looking over her shoulder for threats from the rear, she can’t see which direction the group is moving, so she holds on to the jacket of the male agent to her front, letting him pull her in the right direction. A third rifle-armed officer/agent is right behind her, providing security.

As the group compresses at the SUV, she turns to face outward, draws her handgun, and correctly lowers it to the collapsed low ready/Sul.

It could be argued that she attempts to holster her handgun prematurely, because the SUV’s door is still open. It could also be argued that she should have kept her head up, instead of looking at the holster. However, it’s standard procedure to holster a handgun only once you are confident you no longer need to have it in your hands. The three rifle-armed officers/agents were providing security, so she and the ponytailed agent independently made the decision to holster at the same time.

Having not been able to holster her handgun, the third female agent keeps it at the collapsed low ready/Sul and continues to face outward. Once the SUV’s door is closed, she holsters.

The online armchair experts criticized her for appearing to be in less than top physical condition. But, looks can be deceiving. As the SUV begins to move forward, she is near its rear, right wheel.

She then sprints forward quickly toward the open space to the vehicle’s front and right, in case of a threat from that direction. Below, that’s her, roughly in-line with the 18-wheeler’s front, left wheel. Be careful to not underestimate people. Sometimes, you don’t know who you’re fooling with.

All things considered, while there were many mistakes made in Butler, the three female agents appear, in this video, at least, to have performed well in the movement of Trump to the SUV. Whether all agents assigned to protect someone as tall as Trump should also be tall is something the Secret Service will have to decide going forward.

But at least from what can be seen in this video, the female agents looked like they knew what they were doing, and did it without hesitation.

Copyright © Mark Overstreet 2024