Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr. mocked a new CIA recruitment ad in which a staffer identified as a millennial with anxiety

  • The CIA released a recruitment ad starring a Latina officer identifying as a “cisgender millennial.”
  • It’s part of the “Humans of CIA” series aimed at attracting a more diverse pool of candidates.
  • Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr. mocked the CIA on Monday, with Trump saying it had gone “full woke.”
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Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr have derided the CIA for releasing a recruitment ad starring a female staffer who celebrated being a “cisgender millennial” with anxiety.

The video, released on YouTube by the CIA as part of its “Humans of CIA” series on March 25, sees a Latina woman talk candidly about identity and success.

“I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender millennial who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder,” the woman says.

“I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise … I did not sneak into CIA. I earned my way in and I earned my way up the ranks.”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/X55JPbAMc9g

The advert is part of a video series released by the CIA to attract a more diverse pool of applicants for jobs. The agency has also launched a website specifically for diverse candidates.

The clip went viral on social media earlier this week, prompting conservatives to mock the ad.

“If you’re a Chinese communist, or an Iranian Mullah, or Kim Jong Un … would this scare you? We’ve come a long way from Jason Bourne,” Cruz tweeted late Monday, referencing the protagonist of “The Bourne Identity” spy movie series.

Trump Jr. also tweeted: “China and Russia love this,” adding in a second tweet that the two countries were “laughing their asses off watching CIA go full woke. ‘Cisgender.’ ‘Intersectional.'”

“If you think about it, wokeness is the kind of twisted PSYOP a spy agency would invent to destroy a country from the inside out,” he said, referring to psychological operations, which aim to influence people’s emotions and reasoning.

Larry Pfeiffer, the CIA’s former chief of staff, tweeted in response: “I would suggest that if you don’t like it, you are probably not whom the ad is targeting for employment. Strength from diversity.”

The CIA did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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