(WASHINGTON) — In a letter released late Monday night by the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, he confirmed that Dr. Kevin Cannard, the Parkinson’s expert who visited the White House eight times in an eight-month span, “was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals.”
Canard’s visits to the White House don’t represent examinations of the president, according to O’Connor’s letter. Cannard is involved in a range of care for others beyond the president at the White House, O’Connor said in his note.
“Prior to the pandemic, and following its end, [Cannard] has held regular Neurology clinics at the White House Medical Clinic in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations,” his letter reads. “Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Canard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology Practice.”
On the subject of Biden’s physical, O’Connor noted that “President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical.”
O’Connor also stressed that Biden’s last physical found no signs of Parkinson’s, which he detailed in a Feb. 28 letter.
While White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to confirm these details earlier Monday, citing privacy concerns, O’Connor said he “obtained permission from the President and Dr. Cannard to confirm the details I am sharing.”
O’Connor offered in his letter a full-throated endorsement of Dr. Cannard and his work as the Neurology Consultant to the White House since 2012.
“Dr. Cannard was chosen for this responsibility not because he is a movement disorder specialist, but because he is a highly trained and highly regarded neurologist here at Walter Red and across the Military Health System, with a very wide expertise which makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems,” he wrote.
As ABC News reported earlier on Monday, an expert in Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times over an eight-month span between last July and March of this year, including one visit with the president’s personal physician, according to White House visitor logs.
Asked repeatedly at Monday’s press briefing about Cannard, Jean-Pierre refused to say if the neurologist ever treated the president or consulted on his care, citing privacy concerns, but did say Biden was not being treated for Parkinson’s disease.
“You’re refusing to say if he was here to evaluate the president or if he was consulting on the president’s health. So, what then was that meeting about?” ABC News asked.
Jean-Pierre said she would not elaborate on the meeting “because we will not confirm or speak to names that you’re providing to me. It is out of security.”
As part of his annual physical exam, the president was evaluated by a neurologist who found no signs of Parkinson’s, according to a summary O’Connor released in February.
“An extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy,” his report states.
Overall, the February report stated Biden, 81, continued to be “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
An expert on Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times over an eight-month span between last July and March of this year, including one visit with the president’s personal physician, according to the White House visitor logs.
The doctor, Kevin Cannard, is a neurologist and “movement disorders specialist” who works at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. According to the logs, prior to July of 2023 he had only visited the White House once in November of 2022.
The White House will not confirm if he was advising on the president’s personal care, saying only in a statement “a wide variety of specialists from the Walter Reed system visit the White House complex to treat thousands of military personnel who work on the grounds.”
As part of his annual physical exam, the president was evaluated by a neurologist who found no signs of Parkinson’s, according to the summary released in February.
“An extremely detailed neurologic exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy,” the report states.
Overall, the February report stated Biden, 81, continued to be “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
The president has been adamant that his doctors have not recommended any cognitive testing, insisting in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he passes a cognitive test every day.
“Every day I have that test,” Biden said. “Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world. Not — and that’s not hi– sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden repeatedly if he would be willing to take a cognitive test and release the results publicly, but Biden declined to commit to such a course of action.
“Watch me between — there’s a lotta time left in this campaign,” the president said.
The New York Times first reported the number of Cannard’s visits.
Former President Donald Trump’s long-awaited announcement on who his vice presidential pick will be could likely happen this week, senior adviser Jason Miller said on Monday.
“By this time next Monday, we will know who President Trump has selected as his running mate for the 2024 election,” Miller said during a Monday appearance on Fox & Friends.
“It could happen any time this week. Could happen literally right up until the first day of the convention,” he added, referencing the Republican National Convention, which kicks off next Monday.
He then waded into speculation that the Democratic ticket of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t be the ultimate Democratic ticket for November following calls for Biden to withdraw from the top of the ticket following the president’s debate performance. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Biden brushed off the poor performance as a “bad episode.”
Though Miller wouldn’t delve into specifics about Trump’s list of potential vice presidential picks, he did contend that the former president has discussed potential running mates other than Sens. Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
While campaigning in Philadelphia last month ahead of his debate with Biden, Trump claimed “in [his] mind” he had decided who his running mate would be.
Trump has long said he planned to make his announcement either at or right before next week’s RNC in Milwaukee.
“Right around the convention, maybe a little before,” he said while campaigning late last month.
The campaign has already begun solidifying preparations for Trump’s running mate. A plane for the future Republican vice presidential nominee is already parked in an airport hanger, sources told ABC News; Trump’s pick is already scheduled to be at a fundraiser next week in Milwaukee during the RNC, according to an invitation confirmed by ABC News.
However, campaign officials still maintain they don’t know who Trump’s final selection will be, and some of the people reported to be on his shortlist also claim not to have much information.
Vance said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he hasn’t received a call from Trump asking to be his running mate. He said he is focusing on campaigning for Trump at the moment.
“I have not gotten the call, Kristen, and I’ll certainly — you know, maybe not the first person that I let know if that happened, but we’ll let the media know if I ever get that call,” Vance said. “But most importantly, Kristen, we’re just trying to work to elect Donald Trump.”
Rubio also said he has “heard nothing” about joining Trump’s ticket.
“I heard nothing. I know nothing; you probably know more than I do about it. Donald Trump has a decision to make. He’ll make it when he needs to make it. He’ll make a good decision,” said Rubio during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Trump and his campaign have seemingly enjoyed playing the waiting game on this announcement, offering them an opportunity to garner swirling media attention as well as a host of enthusiastic surrogates trying to break through to the No. 2 spot.
As time dwindles down for Trump’s choice to eventually be made public, he and his campaign say they’ll have to be ready to go.
“Whoever he does pick needs to be able to step in and do the job on Day 1. Each of the different prospects has their own strengths, and I think really can help chart the nation forward,” said Miller on Fox Monday.
(WASHINGTON) — In a lengthy letter to Democrats, President Joe Biden on Monday says it is time for the party to come together so they can have the best chance at beating Donald Trump.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end,” Biden says. “We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden, noting that House and Senate members are returning to Washington Monday, appears to be trying to head off a growing number of Democrats either saying he should step aside as the party’s presumptive nominee — or are continuing to question whether he needs to do so.
“Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” he writes.
“I have had extensive conversations with the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank and file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so. I have heard the concerns that people have – their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them. Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries. I carried it in 2020 when the fate of our nation was at stake,” he says.
“I also know these concerns come from a place of real respect for my lifetime of public service and my record as President, and I have been moved by the expressions of affection for me from so many who have known me well and supported me over the course of my public life. I’ve been grateful for the rock-solid, steadfast support from so many elected Democrats in Congress and all across the country and taken great strength from the resolve and determination I’ve seen from so many voters and grassroots supporters even in the hardest of weeks,” he continues. “I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Striking a defiant tone, he says, “We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin. This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run. Only three people chose to challenge me,” he says. “The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party. Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”
Biden adds, “I decline to do that. I feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust the voters of the Democratic Party have placed in me to run this year. It was their decision to make. Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned. The voters – and the voters alone – decide the nominee of the Democratic Party.vHow can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that.I will not do that.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Signage promoting Milwaukee as the 2024 host of the Republican National Convention inside the Fiserv Forum during the Republican National Convention (RNC) fall media walkthrough in Milwaukee, Wis., on Nov. 30, 2023. — Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — The Republican National Committee is drafting a 2024 party platform that may usher in changes to the GOP’s positions on key issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and immigration — reforms that will likely reflect the beliefs of their leader: former President Donald Trump, platform committee members and Trump allies said.
In 2016, the Republican Party — on their way to nominating Trump for the first time — adopted a strict, conservative platform around issues of gender and sexual orientation against the efforts by some of the party’s more moderate faction to soften that language. An identical platform was approved in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for party committees to convene and adjust language. Trump, during that convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, was chosen as the party’s nominee for a second time.
A political party’s platform distinctly outlines its positions on foreign and domestic policies, but it is not binding and doesn’t directly impact the work of elected officials or candidates. That platform, which Trump ran on in 2016 and 2020, supports legislation that would impose a 20-week federal abortion ban. The Republican platform since the 1980s has articulated support for a constitutional amendment that would assert the sanctity and protection of human life, extending to unborn children.
Now, in 2024, the GOP will convene to write the first platform since the Dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to an abortion over two years ago. The plank could play an outsized role in establishing the ideals of a party reinvented by the former president, who has been clear about his opposition to a federal ban and his preference for this issue to be left up to the states.
Trump’s position on reproductive rights has worried some anti-abortion activists and RNC members who have expressed concern that the call for a “right to life” amendment would be stripped from the platform this year.
The former president’s top advisers are planning to overhaul and reduce the platform so that it will be “in line” with the former president’s “vision for America’s future,” according to a memo sent to the party’s platform committee in June, that was obtained by ABC News.
“He won [2024 primary elections] in a historic fashion,” a senior Trump adviser told ABC News.
“He is the party. But it also reflects the will of voters,” the adviser added. “I anticipate some of that will be in the platform.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the top contenders to be Trump’s running mate, on CNN Sunday, backed stripping the abortion ban from the GOP platform.
“Well, I think our platform has to reflect our nominee, and our nominee’s position actually happens to be one grounded in reality,” Rubio said. “The reality of it is the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And what that basically means is that now it’s not states; it’s voters at individual states who will get to decide how and to what level they want to restrict abortion, if at all. Some states will have restrictions. Some states will not. And so, I hope that our platform will reflect our nominee.”
Draft language for a new platform has not yet been circulated to most platform committee members or general RNC members yet, according to several people familiar with the process, though a number of conversations and lobbying on the issues with Trump allies have been ongoing among leaders of key advocacy groups and with some individuals.
The platform committee began convening in Milwaukee on the evening of July 7 and has meetings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, according to a schedule shared with ABC News. What the committee and full membership adopt will then be unveiled to the full RNC at their national convention beginning on July 15 in Milwaukee.
For weeks, some more socially conservative RNC members and leading anti-abortion groups have been vocal about any platform deliberations that might water down the party’s stance on abortion.
But those efforts reached a fever pitch this week. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, who sits on the RNC’s platform committee, has said he will lead an effort to put together a “minority report” on the platform should the committee soften abortion language — something he claims will happen.
The Family Research Council, in conjunction with dozens of other conservative groups, just launched a “Platform Integrity Project” which “seeks to work with the RNC and the Trump campaign for an open process that will help ensure the preservation of the GOP’s solidly conservative platform that contains longstanding pro-life, pro-family, and pro-Israel planks.”
“[The call for a right to life amendment] is not going to be in the draft platform,” Perkins said on Newsmax this week, noting that the softer language on reproductive rights might impact the 2024 election because he claimed most of the Republican base was staunchly anti-abortion.
“I think it’s going to — it’s going to dampen the enthusiasm. It’s not going to turn people to the other side. That’s not going to happen. But elections are driven by the energy and the enthusiasm – the intensity. This dampens the intensity. That’s the last thing we need,” he added.
Yet one source familiar with platform deliberations told ABC News that much of the alarm is overblown, furthering that some see any change as a complete reconfiguration of the party’s beliefs, which the source flatly denies.
The source says the RNC will use Trump’s recent language on abortion, which he repeated during last month’s debate, as their guide.
“My belief is the loud voices are few and will not be more than a squeaky wheel in the end. A vast majority,” the source said.
Other Republicans have expressed optimism that Trump’s stances could be reflected in the platform.
“President Trump was the first president who supported marriage equality when elected and has repeatedly stated that it’s a settled issue. Given polling of that issue of both Americans and Republicans, it is settled. I would hope any attempts to “define marriage” in the RNC Platform would go by the wayside in 2024 to make it current with the national sentiment…and the law,” said Charles Moran, a Trump delegate in 2016 and 2020 who is the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national conservative organization that supports gay and lesbian rights.
The current RNC platform says the party would “respect the authority of the states to decide such fundamental social questions” on issues like marriage, which is “between one man and one woman.”
Ahead of the platform deliberations, several RNC members have also raised concerns over the fact that these critical committee meetings will be closed to the press and non-committee members — a move they say will suppress the will of general party members so that Trump-aligned actors could institute changes without pushback.
Two emails sent by the RNC’s member services account and reviewed by ABC News outline the policy, which several party members said has not been a practice at former conventions.
“In years past, the place was crawling with lobbyists and special interest groups trying to get specific line items for their clients on platform,” a source familiar with the decision to close the meetings said to ABC News.
In opposition to this decision, Perkins circulated a letter (which ABC News has reviewed) addressed to RNC Chair Michael Whatley that calls upon party leadership to “lift this gag order and reinstate the normal procedure of allowing approved guests and media so that fellow conservatives can observe and participate in this important process.”
“A major issue is the fact that it appears that the RNC and the Trump campaign do not want to allow C-SPAN or anyone else to cover the committee hearings,” one member of another powerful committee — the rules committee — told ABC News.
“This would be a great mistake as being live on TV helps not only keep everyone accountable but it also helps keep people civil. Committee hearings behind closed doors will easily descend into accusations and name-calling. Many members of the committees will feel free behind closed doors to let their hair down and tell the Trump social liberal spokesmen to go to hell,” the member added.
–ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is planning to travel the country next week, as the Republicans gather for their nominating convention, to hold counterprogramming events targeting Black and Latino voters in a sign his campaign is continuing unabated despite growing calls for him to step aside.
On the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15, Biden plans to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, according to a White House official.
“President Biden will continue traveling the country to discuss the extraordinary progress the American people have made in the past three and a half years, lay out his vision to ensure the promise of America reaches all communities, and make clear that we must resist attempts by Congressional Republicans to take us backwards,” the White House official said in a statement.
On July 16, the president will travel to Vegas for two days to deliver remarks at the 115th NAACP National Convention and then the UnidosUS Annual Conference on July 17.
Biden’s stops are a part of the campaign’s July strategy that will include visits to key battleground states, as well as a $50 million paid media blitz.
Leading up to these stops, the president will meet with national union leaders at the AFL-CIO on Wednesday and travel to Detroit for his fourth trip to Michigan this year on Friday, according to the campaign.
(PHILADELPHIA) — As President Joe Biden contends with the growing fallout from his debate performance, calls to drop out and criticism of his age, he found safe harbor at a Black church in Philadelphia on Sunday, where the congregation came to his defense.
“We want you to know, President Biden, that Bishop Morris is 91 years old on his way to 92,” Mount Airy Church of God in Christ Bishop J. Louis Felton said of the church’s founder, Bishop Ernest C. Morris Sr.
“And so, Mr. President, since you are only an octogenarian sitting next to a nonagenarian, don’t let anybody talk about your age. You’re a young whippersnapper,” Felton continued during his introduction of 81-year-old Biden, eliciting a laugh from the president and applause from the audience.
Later, during his sermon, Felton took on Biden’s critics head-on, saying more attention should be given to former President Donald Trump’s false statements.
“I don’t know why it is that you want to make an issue of the president and his condition with stammering and not being able, at certain times, to bring forth words while another person lies fluently and you never challenge his lies,” Felton said to cheers.
Biden, when he got up to speak after Felton, said he was grateful for the support.
“Mr. Felton, thank you for that introduction and moving sermon. And thank you, this incredible congregation, for welcoming me as you have,” Biden said.
“I’ve always felt the power of your faith in good times and in tough times,” Biden later added of the Black church. “Fact is, the Scripture says, all things work together for good. To those who love God are in our call according to His purpose. Our purpose is to serve others.”
“We’re all imperfect beings,” the president went on to say. “We don’t know where or what faith will deliver us to or when. But we do know is that we can seek a life of light, hope, love and truth. No matter what, we can seek that life. Take all of our experiences and give everything we have to work together, because when we do, you can’t stop us.”
Biden praised the church for its role in helping America live up to the ideal of equality, saying that because of the church, America has “never full walked away from it.”
“And that’s because of you and generations before you who led the church from slavery to freedom. Always praying, always believing that joy cometh in the morning,” Biden said. “You’ve never given up. And my life, and as your president, I’ve tried to walk my faith.”
Biden dismisses concerns about mental fitness, says he’d drop out if the ‘Lord Almighty’ told him to In his earlier remarks, Felton said America needed to “see some love for a change.”
“That is why I believe God, who is in charge of everything, interfered [with] the president’s schedule. He was previously scheduled to speak at a conference today, but God knew President Biden need[ed] some love and sen[t] him here today so we can show him,” Felton said.
Biden was to speak at the National Education Association’s conference in Philadelphia on Sunday, but his campaign announced Friday that he backed out because the group’s staff union went on strike, and the president would not cross a picket line.
“President Biden, you are not only among friends, you’re among family,” Felton continued. “We did not come to beat up on you, to put you down, to criticize you, to magnify your flaws or mistakes. We come to love you.”
With a nod to the precarious political position Biden finds himself in, Felton said Biden will find his way out.
Major Democratic donors continue calls for Biden to step aside after ABC News interview “If Jesus could get out of the pit, President Biden is coming back,” Felton said. “He’s a comeback kid, he’s a fighter, he’s a champion, he’s a winner.”
“Our president gets discouraged but today, through your Holy Spirit, renew his mind, renew his spirit, renew his body,” Felton prayed. “He’s the man we need in these terrible times.”
Afterward, Biden went to a separate space in the church to greet congregants and snap selfies.
“Can I get a hug from you?” one woman asked Biden, who gave her a kiss on the cheek, as others asked for pictures.
At one point, another woman said, “We don’t want to wear him out.”
Later in the day, Biden told reporters that his party was behind him.
“Mr. President, is the Democratic Party behind you, sir?” a reporter shouted on the tarmac in Harrisburg, where Biden is set to make his third campaign stop of the day.
(WASHINGTON) — Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, his office announced.
“Yesterday, the Second Gentleman tested positive for COVID-19 after experiencing mild symptoms. He is fully vaccinated and three times boosted,” Liza Acevedo, Emhoff’s communications director, said in a statement Sunday. “He is currently asymptomatic, continuing to work remotely, and remaining away from others at home.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, yesterday, the Vice President was tested for COVID-19. She tested negative and remains asymptomatic,” Acevedo added.
Emhoff was at the White House a few days ago to celebrate Independence Day with Harris, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
(MILWAUKEE) — The smell of burning rubber is unmistakable during a U.S. Secret Service training exercise that will be critical to the security of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump during their upcoming party conventions.
Agents prepare for any threat, traveling at speeds approaching 90 miles an hour while navigating tight turns and stopping on a dime.
The Secret Service has also modeled a life-size town where agents train for an attack on a motorcade — one of many potential worst-case scenarios. Would-be attackers fire blank rounds from the cover of buildings on both sides of the street to simulate a real assault on a protectee. A counter-assault team jumps out of black SUVs to return fire and contain the situation.
“We have to train for the lone wolf gunman, all the way up to possibly state-sponsored terrorist attacks,” Secret Service Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge Shaun Miltier said.
The purpose is to have lethal force at the ready.
“We use speed, surprise and violence of action… to divert, suppress and neutralize that threat,” said Agent Kyle Kuhn with the Special Operations Division.
Republicans will host their convention from July 15-18 in Milwaukee. Democrats will hold theirs in Chicago from Aug. 19-22.
With the Republican convention just over a week away, the Secret Service and an army of federal, state and local agencies are working around the clock to prepare for any potential threat in a deeply divided country.
The security package in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention is more than a year in the making. ABC News went inside a joint command center that will serve as a real-time coordination hub during the convention.
“We have many partner organizations at all levels of government that have been involved in this process, and we are continually monitoring information related to the event,” Secret Service Coordinator Audrey Gibson-Cicchino said. “So we are well prepared and have a plan in place to account for any situation that may arise.”
Federal and local law enforcement are coming together to protect the convention from the air, land and sea. Helicopters and airplanes are ready to patrol the sky, along with Secret Service drone pilots.
“If we get a report of a medical situation, we can use the drone to actually go over there, help identify the medical situation and direct our first responders to that area,” Secret Service drone pilot Matthew Malone said.
Milwaukee Police Department Harbor Patrol will also be on alert, guarding against any potential threats from Lake Michigan.
“We pretty much know the water like the back of our hand,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said. “And it’s important for us to understand those particular type[s] of sensitive areas and how to properly secure it.”
In Chicago, the Secret Service official overseeing security for the Democratic National Convention in August said he is confident in their plans and preparations.
“We’re not only here to ensure the safety of the attendees of the convention, but there’s almost 2.7 million residents of the city of Chicago that live and work here every day,” Secret Service Coordinator Jeff Burnside said.
Chicago police plan to put officers on bikes for crowd control, giving them an advantage in the event of civil unrest. The city’s top cop is also mindful not only of the threat of terror, but also how crowds themselves can be a security threat. The key, law enforcement leaders say, is balancing the right to protest with the need to maintain public safety.
“We want to protect those rights,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said. “But we’re also preparing and training for when things can’t be de-escalated, and they go off scale.”
(WASHINGTON) — Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle said Sunday that current political divisions play into the domestic threat environment as her agency prepares to protect both parties’ nominating conventions this summer.
When asked by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos about how “extreme political polarization” feeds “into the threat environment,” Cheatle said threats are constantly evolving but conceded that division plays a role.
“I think it plays into it,” she said. “I think that the environment that we’re dealing with today is certainly different than it was four years ago. I’m sure we’ll see an evolution in the next four years, as well, but it is definitely something that we take into consideration.”
Cheatle added that “there’s nothing specific and nothing credible out there right now.”
Republicans are hosting their convention from July 15-18 in Milwaukee, and Democrats will hold theirs from Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Both events will likely tie up a substantial portion of each city’s downtown and require major security presences by the Secret Service and local police.
Cheatle said the Secret Service is monitoring any threats from foreign or domestic terrorism ahead of the events.
“I think we have to make sure that we are assessing the risk for both of those, as well as any other type of threat that may come at us whether it’s a lone gunman, an organized attack or an organized group,” she said.
Both conventions are also likely to draw protesters, especially as liberals continue to object to President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, posing a challenge to law enforcement balancing the conventions’ protection and the need to honor demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.
“The Secret Service, as well as Milwaukee Police Department, Chicago Police Department, obviously respect the right for everybody to be able to express their First Amendment rights. Where we have concerns is if those potential demonstrations turned violent, and then appropriate action would be taken. But we certainly welcome people to come out and be able to express their First Amendment rights,” Cheatle said.
She added that “we are definitely preparing in different ways,” noting there aren’t particularly different kinds of threats but that “each city is different.”
Stephanopoulos also asked Cheatle about former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in September of fraud convictions in New York, asking how the Secret Service would protect him in jail if he were to be sentenced to time behind bars — a prospect that legal experts suggest is unlikely.
“We have the responsibility of protecting our folks no matter where they are, and so we will figure out how to strike that balance,” Cheatle said.
