The District of Columbia delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, blasted the White House in a press release about how it handled a candlelight vigil in a park outside the White House this past weekend.
Norton, a non-voting member in Congress, said Tuesday that simple communication between the White House, the Secret Service and the vigil’s organizers could have kept the cancer stricken children from being booted from the park.
President Barack Obama had been scheduled to attend a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner Saturday night, and the group of children and their parents were ejected from the park as a security procedure.
Obama, though, wasn’t scheduled to leave the White House until after the vigil ended.
The event was part of CureFest for Childhood Cancer, a two-day event to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer cures. The group of nearly 700 attendees received all the permits they needed to hold “A night of Golden Candles” in Lafayette Park, but were still forced to leave
Obama was the last person scheduled to speak during the program, according to a Norton press release, where he would show up “only in time to take pictures with each Congressional Black Caucus Member before immediately going on stage.”
Norton said she spoke with U.S. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy to explain how disappointed she was with the agency’s actions. Clancy said he personally apologized to the parents and has been in touch with the organizers of the event to set up another date for the vigil.
“I think Director Clancy understood that ejecting those children and their parents, who were holding a candlelight vigil to draw attention to the cancer that children are suffering, was inexcusable,” Norton said. “He knows of my long-time concern with Americans being able to gather in front of the White House.
Clancy told Norton that the Secret Service would engage in an after-action review of the incident and reevaluate its protocols for Lafayette Park.
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