Chaya Raichik, creator of Libs of TikTok, during the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Photo: Jack Gruber, Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN
Republican lawmakers and far-right talking heads are blaming the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump Saturday on women and diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the government.
The internet and TV airwaves have been flooded since the incident. with some right-wingers making accusations that the shooting was a direct result of women in positions that should be filled by men.
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Notorious stochastic terrorist and anti-LGBTQ+ internet troll Chaya Raichik of Lib so fTikTok was an early and incessant accuser on X.
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“This female agent couldn’t even holster her gun today during the attempted assassination of Trump. DEI hire?” Raichik asked while posting a video showing a female Secret Service agent struggling to holster her weapon as Trump was loaded into a vehicle after the shooting.
In a follow-up post after news of the death of one rally attendee, Raichik wrote: “DEI got people hurt and killed.”
“If there was a woman doing a job like this, it 100 percent means that a more qualified male was passed over,” Matt Walsh, the self-proclaimed “theocratic fascist,” posted on X. Walsh has a history of urging women to “stay in their lane” with more traditional occupations like housewife and mother.
Thousands of comments across the internet echoed the misogyny.
“Women are great at being MOTHERS and making a great home environment and taking care of their family,” one commenter posted on the pro-Trump message board The Donald.
Right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson claimed on X the shooting response was an “absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents,” and that “DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe.”
A headline in Gateway Pundit amplified and reinforced the growing consensus on the right with a headline that read, “Ponytail Brigade: Utter Humiliation For Gaggle of Female Secret Service Agents After Trump Assassination Attempt.”
“This DEI agenda and the destruction of meritocracy is affecting the competence levels of these agencies,” Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general told Jesse Watters on Fox News.
Barr and others pointed to the director at Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, who told CBS earlier this year that she wanted to increase the number of female agents in the service to 30% as part of a diversity initiative.
On Fox, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) blamed Cheatle directly for the assassination attempt, calling her a “DEI initiative person.”
“My security detail is all men,” posted Valentina Gomez, who used a flamethrower to ignite a pile of LGBTQ+-themed books earlier this year in her campaign for Missouri secretary of state. “Tier 1 operators and seal team six are all men. These women are diversity hires by the SS.”
Gomez’s campaign slogan is “Don’t be weak and gay.”
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged the attempted assassination was a security “failure”, but stopped short of assigning blame.
After Raichik unloaded her rhetorical clip on so-called DEI Secret Service hires, she directed her scowling eyes to random X users at odds with her pick for the fascist dictator, calling out every account she could find that expressed disappointment the assassination attempt didn’t have a different outcome.
The public shaming will doubtless invite the same stochastic terrorism Raichik has inspired countless times before.
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