A Secret Service agent is for the first time publicly speaking out against the agency’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which he says contributed to the first assassination attempt against President Trump last summer.
A 13-year veteran of the agency who has served in an elite unit and top protective assignments, Rashid Ellis sat down for an interview with the Independent Women’s Forum, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit.
IWF is in the process of making a documentary, titled “Qualifications, Not Quotas,” about Ellis’s experience and released an explanation of the documentary and a trailer Thursday providing a snapshot of his experience and concerns.
“My initial thoughts when seeing the Butler assassination attempt was dread,” Ellis states solemnly in the trailer. “My stomach was in knots watching it because we had known for years that this was coming.”
“I believe agendas have taken priority at the United States Secret Service for a long time, which is why Butler and July 13 happened and why we got a president get shot,” he adds.
A graduate of The Citadel, a prestigious military college in South Carolina, Ellis has served on the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team, an elite unit that provides tactical support to the president of the United States. Ellis went on to serve on the Presidential Protective Detail, a top assignment protecting presidents and their families, and as an instructor at the Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center, where he has taught new and experienced agents about counter-surveillance, according to a 2023 article on The Citadel’s website.
“To be in the Secret Service, you have to be worthy of trust and confidence,” Ellis, wearing his Citadel class ring on a braided necklace around his neck, states in the video. “I’ve always viewed [it] as an honor and privilege to serve in this capacity. However … what I’ve seen with the United States is a different set of standards based on gender.”
Despite his accomplishments, Ellis, who is black, says he was unfairly denied a leadership position and believes that DEI gender “quotas played a factor.” He argues that the agency’s hiring and promotions based on skin color and gender have directly contributed to lowering morale and the ongoing exodus of senior agents leaving the agency. The previous Secret Service leadership placed a special emphasis on hiring and promoting women.
