“It is critical that the full diversity and strength of our force is reflected at every level of the Department of Defense, including at the highest levels of leadership.”

That was Joe Biden last summer, pushing his “diversity” agenda across the U.S. military. To make his point, he also trotted out one of the Left’s most infernal lies: “America’s greatest strength has always been our diversity, and there is no greater testament to this than the success of our military.”

To say that our military has “always” been great because of its diversity is either a purposeful lie or a lazy, ridiculous, demonstrably ignorant falsehood. Diversity doesn’t make great fighting forces. Merit makes great fighting forces. Leadership makes great fighting forces. Courage and cohesion and integrity and indomitable spirit make great fighting forces.

Those same attributes, of course, apply to almost every American institution, and the FBI is no exception. Unfortunately, in addition to having been corrupted and politicized by the Left, the bureau is now being actively infected with the three-headed plague of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the New York Post’s Miranda Devine writes:

An alarming deterioration in recruitment standards for the FBI has been exposed in a report delivered to the House Judiciary Committee by an alliance of retired and active-duty agents and analysts.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) requirements pushed by FBI Director Chris Wray have degraded recruitment standards in all areas including “physical fitness, illicit drug use, financial irregularities, mental health, full-time work experience and integrity,” and pose a threat to the FBI’s ability to protect America from harm, say the authors.

How bad is it? How desperate has Joe Biden’s bureau become to ensure that it “looks like America”? According to the 112-page report, the bureau is now hiring agents “who are so fat and unfit, they can’t even pass the new relaxed standards for fitness; who are illiterate and need remedial English lessons; who don’t want to work weekends or after hours; have serious disabilities or mental-health issues, and ‘create drama.’”

So much for recruiting the “best and brightest.” When the Left starts pushing diversity, what it’s really pushing is quotas and race-based promotion. The FBI is no exception.

Thus, instead of recruiting based on merit, the FBI is now selecting candidates based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. We know all this, as Devine writes, because of an alliance of anonymous retired and active-duty FBI reformers including “senior former executives and agents from the counterintelligence and counterterrorism branches” who believe the bureau no longer has “the fortitude and skills” necessary to detect threats and secure our homeland. Indeed, as these former agents warn, “If the current trajectory of FBI Special Agent recruitment and selection continues — using DEI as the primary and sole measure — our homeland security efforts will be significantly hampered.”

Among the report’s key findings is dysfunction at the FBI, including a chain of command that routinely ignores significant concerns raised by FBI personnel and retaliation that is “widely perceived throughout the workforce as devastating, swift, and automatic.”

According to whistleblowers, fewer people are applying for employment at the FBI, and this is despite Director Wray’s claim to Congress last year that recruitment numbers are soaring.

Our Mark Alexander thinks that given the corrupt power demonstrated by the deep state during Donald Trump’s term, Biden is building the ranks of the FBI’s agents willing to do the Left’s political bidding.

Whether the bureau is beyond repair is anyone’s guess. As Devine concludes: “The report urges the House Judiciary Committee to order a 90-day audit of the FBI’s recruitment practices, to introduce legislation to strengthen the oath of office for FBI special agents, and to call Director Wray to testify before Congress over whether he is ‘willfully lying to conceal significant deficiencies’ in recruitment or has been misinformed by subordinates.”