During a press briefing on Monday, Secret Service Official Matt McCool was asked about potential protests at the Army 250th birthday parade in Washington, D.C.
00:00Hi there. Thank you so much for doing this. Nicole Scango with CBS News. Two questions.
00:12One, can you speak a little bit about First Amendment activity and plans for protesters?
00:17And then just as a second question, curious, you mentioned the 18.5 miles of fencing.
00:22We've seen much of that go around the White House this morning. Do you anticipate that fencing
00:27will stay much beyond the event, or at what point should we see that come down?
00:32We're planning on everything to be cleaned up by the 19th. And then as far as the First
00:37Amendment activity, from a Secret Service perspective, it's simply people using their First Amendment
00:44right to protest. We're not going to do anything with that. If that turns violent or if any laws
00:49are broken, that's when NPE or Police Secret Service will get involved and that will be
00:54handled swiftly. Is there a designated area for that?
01:02So the National Park Service handles the permitting process, right? So we have several permits
01:07currently pending. From what we've reviewed thus far in our communications was we don't
01:11have any significant concerns. We don't have a designated area according to the permit that
01:16will request where they want to be. And the National Park Service will make a decision based
01:20on the NSSE and the security partner. But first, we have activity, significant experience
01:24with all the events in the mall, right? So I serve in the Park Police and NPD as well. We're here.
01:35Hey, Matt. It's Holmes Library. I'm from CNN. I'm curious, what is the number that you're
01:40really expecting right now for counter-protesters? And you mentioned in terms of attendees, we're
01:45targeting hundreds of thousands. Are we seeing anywhere near that number for counter-protesters?
01:50No, not even close. We're tracking about nine person activity demonstrations. Nowhere. I'm not going to get
01:57into the exact number, but it's not that high. And then is there a plan in place to call the National Guard if needed?
02:04We actually have the National Guard. They're working the event, so they will be here, but we also have a robust plan for civil disturbance.
02:13What's the number of the National Guard here? Again, I'm not going to talk about numbers just for security reasons, but between CDU units that we have from multiple agencies and the National Guard, I'm very confident in the plan we have.
02:26Thanks. Yeah.
02:32A quick follow-up on the National Guard. Is that the National Guard that has been deployed and will they be armed? Whichever National Guard is it, will they be armed?
02:42They will not be armed, and I believe it's not just D.C. National Guard, but D.C. National Guard is involved.
02:49Can I ask about the logistics of spectators who want to get in? So there's a festival area and then there's the viewing area. Can you go from the festival area to the parade viewing area without going out and entering new security?
03:01Do you want to answer that? Sure. You have to go through security for both. But once I'm in the festival area, I can just go?
03:08No. You can go out and you'll go through. And we have a ton of magnetometers, so it depends on how people show up. If a million people show up, there's going to be a line.
03:16And then how many people are you prepared that can actually sit on those, is it like three or four blocks where there's actually bleachers for the parade route?
03:23There will be no bleachers. So it's just standing along Constitution Avenue? Correct.
03:27And so how many people do you think you can accommodate there? Hundreds of thousands. You can? Okay.
