The Republican National Committee is demanding that Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle get personally involved in moving a planned protest zone further away from the party’s convention site in Milwaukee this summer, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
O Letter, sent Thursday by RNC adviser Todd Steggerda to Cheatle, builds on growing demands from GOP officials to move that planned zone. These officials believe current plans would force delegates and other attendees to come into close contact with protesters on their way to the convention site.
“With less than two months before the Convention and even less time before the USSS finalizes the Plan, it is imperative that you take personal and immediate steps to correct this unacceptable flaw in the design of the Security Perimeter,” Steggerda wrote.
“The criticality of the situation requires that you immediately provide the appropriate mandate and delegated authority to your team to adjust the Security Perimeter to alleviate these risks,” he added.
A Secret Service spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the letter.
A detailed map of the Secret Service security perimeter — the zone around the convention that is off-limits to the general public and requires credentials and screening for access — has not been publicly released. But people familiar with the plans say the space identified as a protest zone, Pere Marquette Park, falls outside it, NBC News reported Thursday.
Citing security concerns after a man set himself on fire outside former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York and a suspicious package was sent to the national committee this week, GOP officials said they want the Secret Service to expand the security perimeter. because current plans would force convention attendees to stay close to protesters as they entered and exited the Fiserv Forum, the convention site, risking confrontations. The Republican Party’s four-day nominating convention takes place July 15-18.
“Your failure to act now to avoid these unnecessary and certain risks will endanger tens of thousands of Convention attendees by inexcusably forcing them closer to the currently planned First Amendment Zone,” Steggerda wrote in Thursday’s letter. “Inevitably, this Plan will increase – rather than avoid or diffuse – tensions and confrontations, creating an increased and unsustainable risk of violence. This rapidly deteriorating security environment and the serious consequences for the public underscore the requirement for your personal leadership and action to resolve this issue.”
Officials from the RNC and the Secret Service were scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss various topics related to the convention.
In his letter, Steggerda proposed expanding the security perimeter one block east “to encapsulate” Pere Marquette Park into the perimeter and designating Zeidler Union Square, about three-quarters of a mile south of Fiserv Forum, as a protest zone. Pere Marquette Park is one block south and one block east of Fiserv Forum.
Pere Marquette Park was also the designated protest zone for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which was significantly scaled back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Zeidler Park was being considered in 2020 before Pere Marquette Park was selected.
Steggarda wrote that “this small extension of a small portion of the eastern side of the Security Perimeter would remedy” a “critical flaw in the current design” that posed the risk of confrontation “while also protecting the freedom of the public to peacefully assemble and demonstrate within sight and sound of the Convention, just three or four blocks away.”
NBC News reported Thursday that the Secret Service said the security perimeter is based on a threat assessment and that it would prefer not to take up more area than necessary. Further inaction by the Secret Service would put the decision in the hands of Milwaukee officials.
A spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, said officials were “very open to hearing all concerns” from all parties involved, but some members of the Milwaukee Common Council said they felt the protest zone currently planned was adequate.
RNC officials wrote to Cheatle about their concerns last month, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed up with a letter of his own this month to warn that preliminary plans could create “a likely area – and avoidable – of conflict between protesters and Convention participants and delegates.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
