GOP officials frustrated that Secret Service and local authorities won't move RNC protest zone

Republican officials are running into a wall of opposition — from the Secret Service and local officials — as they fight to move a protest zone farther away from the site of their national convention in Milwaukee this summer.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote to Secret Service chief Kim Cheatle this month to warn that preliminary plans could create "a likely — and preventable — area of conflict between protestors and Convention attendees and delegates." His concerns echoed and elevated those expressed by the Republican National Committee late last month.

Though a detailed map of the Secret Service's security perimeter — the zone around the convention that is off-limits to the general public and requires credentials and screening to access — hasn't been publicly released, people familiar with the plans say the space identified as a protest zone, Pere Marquette Park, falls outside it.

GOP officials — citing safety concerns after a man set himself on fire outside former President Donald Trump’s New York trial and a suspicious package was sent to the national committee this week — want the Secret Service to expand its security perimeter because, they say, the current plans would force delegates and others attending to come in close contact with protesters on their way to FiServ Forum, the site of the convention.

"Look what's going on in college campuses," a GOP convention planning official said in an interview. "You can just turn on the TV; we know there's going to be bad actors that want to come here. And that's our concern and why we really think [the Secret Service] should include the park" inside the "green zone" around the convention center.

But the Secret Service says that the security perimeter is based on a threat assessment and that it isn't inclined to take more turf than it must — leaving the decision about the protest zone to the city of Milwaukee — according to people familiar with ongoing negotiations between the Republican National Committee and the Secret Service. Republican officials and Secret Service brass have a standing Thursday meeting to discuss issues related to the four-day nominating convention, which takes place July 15-18.

The relationship is strained, with the GOP convention planning official taking umbrage at being told civilians don't have the expertise to make security calls.

"I said, 'OK, well, you're protecting civilians, and I'm asking about everyone's safety,'" the official recalled. "It's ridiculous."

If the Secret Service won't claim the park's land as part of its secure zone — forcing protesters to be moved elsewhere — the call rests on the shoulders of the city and of Milwaukee County, which technically controls nearby parks.

Pere Marquette Park was also the designated protest zone for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The Covid-19 pandemic led to a scaled-down convention where any concern about interactions between protesters and participants was moot.

Some members of Milwaukee’s Common Council said they feel the likely protest zone is adequate and dismissed the desire for changes to its location — by both Republican officials and protest groups.

“There’s no appetite to alter any of the decisions we’ve made to date regarding protests zones,” said Alderman Robert Bauman, whose district includes much of downtown Milwaukee, adding that the likely zone was already judged to be “an appropriate balance” of “free speech and security.”

“I don’t see the city making any changes to the current arrangement regarding speakers, platforms, protest zones, parade routes,” said Bauman, who, as a member of the Common Council, is elected as a nonpartisan.

Certain protest groups have already vowed to march beyond the designated zone — a threat that Bauman said means both protesters and Republican officials seem destined to be unhappy with whatever arrangement is finalized.

“We are already being criticized by various activist groups locally that we are not allowing them to be close enough,” he said, adding that the competing demands amount to a “tug of war.”

Republican officials say the situation stands out for its contrast to the Democrats' convention in Chicago, where a proposed protest zone is more than 3 miles away from the United Center, where President Joe Biden expects to be renominated in August. The distance between the convention site and the protest zone in Chicago has triggered litigation as an array of activist groups sue the city.

Typically, protest areas are placed within "sight and sound" of event locations — or the security perimeters around them — based on past court rulings.

That's a consideration for Milwaukee officials.

Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, said the city hasn't made any final determination about the location of what some officials refer to as a "First Amendment zone."

"We are very open to listening to all the concerns that are being expressed, from people who want it closer and from people who want it farther way," he said, adding that the city has a "contractual and legal obligation" both to provide a protest area and to put it appropriately close to the convention.

Republican officials have proposed moving the protest zone to Red Arrow Park — which is less than a mile across the Milwaukee River from FiServ Forum — to prevent confrontation between protesters and convention participants. Zeidler Park, also less than a mile from the arena, was under consideration in 2020 before Pere Marquette Park was selected, and Republican officials say either Red Arrow Park or Zeidler Park would be preferable.

Republican officials note that law enforcement officials plan to cut off waterway traffic during the convention.

"So they obviously view the river as a security concern," the GOP convention planning official said. "Why would you put the protesters on the other side of the river next to all of our guests? If you don’t want boats to be in the river, then why would you let protesters be on the other side?"

Republican officials and the city expect plans for the protest zone to be finalized next month.