Republican National Committeeman from California, is a well known fixture here at the FlashReport. He’s already in Tampa in advance of next week’s Republican National Convention, and will be “live-blogging” from on the ground… Here’s his third update from Florida.
This really has not been a RNC controlled convention. Logistics were entirely controlled by the Secret Service. Conventions are considered national security events.
Really.
It was like East Berlin in 1962 with miles of 20 foot high rusted fences, with hundreds of concrete barriers.
Long unnecessary lines.
Thousands of cops dressed in paramilitary brown uniforms. Many of them were carrying very large automatic weapons.
There have been regular, intrusive checkpoints manned by people with very officious attitudes.
The convention center felt like were in the green zone, about to be attacked.
To add to the stifling atmosphere — the weather is humid and miserable.
This is supposed to be a fun party.
The cancellation of the Monday session of the convention was absurd. No Republican official called for any cancellation. This large storm was hundreds of miles to the west of Tampa (where my heart goes out to those in its direct path). But the sun was out most of the time here, and it was muggy — but not much rain.
The Secret Service made the decision to call off our convention activities for Monday night.
Later I found out there are drones working the skies, and there are some 5,000 undercover, non-uniformed cops here.
I hope we never have such a heavy-handed convention in the future.
I’m even beginning to feel sorry for the Democrats in Charlotte.