So far, defining the difference between the two parties:
NEW: GOP urges Secret Service to move protesters away from a Milwaukee park near their convention arena, arguing that attendees will have to pass the area and conflict could ensue. https://t.co/Qiq5hpkPKQ
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 26, 2024
The RNC wants to Speak to the (Secret Service) Manager, per the Washington Post:
… Milwaukee’s plan to host protesters in a one-block city park about a quarter-mile from the arena is dangerous because thousands of convention attendees will be forced to walk by the park en route to the festivities, a lawyer for the Republican Party wrote in the letter. The park is situated between two main streets that the Republican National Committee says convention attendees will use to get to the venue.
“This will force thousands of peaceful attendees and demonstrators, who may otherwise choose to avoid or limit direct, proximate engagement with one another, to be in extremely close, consistent, and unavoidable proximity. As recent college and university campus clashes make plain, forced proximity heightens tensions among peaceful attendees and demonstrators of differing ideologies and increases the risk of escalation to verbal, or even physical, clashes and corresponding law enforcement intervention,” wrote the lawyer, Todd Steggerda of McGuireWoods.
Instead, the GOP wants the Secret Service to include the area called Pere Marquette Park in its security perimeter, which would force the city to choose a different area for its “First Amendment Zone.” Pere Marquette is the closest large park to the arena. The RNC has proposed another park by City Hall across the river from the arena, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
In the letter, Steggerda wrote that the RNC asked low-level Secret Service officials to change the plan, but “this critical shortcoming has not been addressed.” By sending the letter, the RNC is escalating the dispute to the director of the Secret Service and demanding a meeting to discuss the issue…
Secret Service officials have told city officials that they do not want to get involved in a political fight, said another person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations.
“This was not set up to stick it to the Republicans. This was where we were going to have the protest area for the Democrats in 2020 as well,” this person said….
Meanwhile, on our side…
Scoop via @MattBelloni: Steven Spielberg “has been quietly but actively working with the Joe Biden campaign to help choreograph August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. … participating in multiple strategy sessions on how to best tell the president’s story…”… https://t.co/3CL1Mifqof
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) April 26, 2024
This is the entirety of Byer’s Spielberg-related scoop at Puck:
Spielberg to tell Biden’s story at D.N.C.: Steven Spielberg hasn’t made a movie since The Fabelmans in 2022, so there’s a ton of speculation about what project he’ll tackle next. Surprise: It’s not a movie. I’m told the Oscar-winning filmmaker has been quietly but actively working with the Joe Biden campaign to help choreograph August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Starting a few months ago, Spielberg has participated in multiple strategy sessions on how to best tell the president’s story, his accomplishments, and his vision for a second term. Spielberg is a big Biden fundraiser, of course, and his friend and former DreamWorks business partner Jeffrey Katzenberg is a chair of the Biden campaign. I’m told Spielberg also quietly consulted a bit on the 2020 convention, which was held virtually. But Steven will play a bigger role this time, according to a source familiar with the planning, and while there’s no short-film project in the works right now, he could even direct or produce something that would be shown at the convention, as he did in 2008 for Obama. (The Biden campaign and a rep for Spielberg both declined to comment.)
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Planning the National ConventionsPost + Comments (89)