Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is questioning the setup laid out by Secret Service for the upcoming Republican National Convention in his home state of Wisconsin, noting that the protest zone is a block away from the entire convention area, raising security concerns.
Speaking to Breitbart News Daily, Johnson spoke about the issues he has with the way Secret Service has set up a protest zone for the July Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, noting that they set it up in a park that is “literally a block away from the entire convention area.”
“Initially, they had entrance points on the street just north and south of that park. So the convention goers [would] literally be walking right by the protest zone,” he said, noting there would not necessarily be fences. Rather, “it’s just going to be this park where I don’t know how many hundreds of people can gather.”
Johnson said he has dealt with the Secret Service directly and described it as “pretty frustrating.” He explained that Secret Service looked at the criteria and set up the security plan, but they now say they do not have the authority to change it.
“Makes no sense whatsoever. So we’re not taking that as an answer. We’re going to continue to press them and say this is an area of concern. This could be a problem that can be mitigated. We should mitigate it and move on,” Johnson explained, emphasizing that there would be no control of this gathering site.
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“Even if they moved the entrances — which they’re doing the same about moving one block north and one black south — it’s just a block away from this park. Again, where all these protesters can gather — no control over them,” the senator said. “They can spill out of that park and do whatever they want to do.”
“And again, you can’t mitigate all risk,” he said, adding that he sees it as an issue, regardless.
“But I was shocked when I actually saw what the situation was, and maybe more shocked that they’re not right now willing to do anything about it,” he continued, noting the situation with the Democrat National Convention in Chicago.
“Right now that the zone is, they don’t really have the exact protest zone. They’ve got something about three and a half miles away” he said, noting that the United Center, where the convention will be held, is surrounded by private parking lots.
“So there’s no way there’s gonna be a protest zone anywhere near as close to DNC,” he said, explaining that the situation in Milwaukee is based on the DNC convention in Milwaukee in 2020.
“This was a plan set when they were gonna do this in 2020, but I would argue this was completely different circumstances. They set this plan before the riots, summer riots of 2020, and before January 6,” he said.
“But also, it was going to be a Democrat National Committee convention in a Democrat city. Ok? Completely different situation here. Times have changed, you know, our society has changed, and we just need to be more mindful of that,” he added.
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