Secret Service Blocks Press From Inauguration Protest Space
By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group - Washington, DC–The Secret Service has denied credentialed press access to a protest space permitted to ANSWER Coalition along the Inauguration route at the Navy Memorial, according to Brian Becker, National Coordinator for the group. Becker said that the Secret Service is not granting press permits to set up stands to cover the protest area between 7th and 9th Streets NW, which falls midway along the route Donald Trump’s motorcade will pass after he is sworn in as the 45th President. An ANSWER Coalition press release condemned the action an “outrage” and “a blatant act of political discrimination and a grave threat to free speech and the right to dissent in the Trump Era.”