Trump visit poses new challenges for Cullman County: 'It's one thing for Lynyrd Skynyrd to come...' [View all]
As Cullman’s longtime EMA director, Phyllis Little has worked alongside law enforcement and response personnel at the local center of logistically challenging events for decades. Storms, concerts, hazmat spills, massive sinkholes on U.S. Highways — she’s seen a lot.
But she hasn’t seen it all. Never in living memory has Little — or anyone else in Cullman — encountered an event that presents the scale, or the gravity, of the security and logistical challenge that comes with a presidential visit.
“Not in my tenure at the EMA office have we had anything of this magnitude,” Little said Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s planned Aug. 21 rally in Cullman. “After the 2011 tornadoes, we had a call indicating that there was a possibility of a presidential visit here, but that didn’t happen. Beyond that, nothing else really compares.”
Former and sitting presidents all retain an extensive U.S. Secret Service security detail that follows their movements, both public and private, for life. And it’s the Secret Service that calls the security shots whenever a president makes a public appearance anywhere — whether it’s in a populated urban area accustomed to handling all the attention, or a small town with a logistical infrastructure that’s seldom called upon to test it.
Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/08/trump-visit-poses-new-challenges-for-cullman-county-its-one-thing-for-lynyrd-skynyrd-to-come.html
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