CNN’s Oliver Darcy once questioned whether a protest he organized against former President Barack Obama was canceled by the Secret Service for political reasons, rather than because of a genuine threat.
Darcy and around 30 protesters rallied outside the White House in 2012 to demand Obama fire former Attorney General Eric Holder. Secret Service agents identified a backpack on a nearby sidewalk as a “suspicious package” during the event and forced the protesters to leave the Pennsylvania Avenue pedestrian mall.
Darcy, who helped organize the protest, quickly expressed skepticism about the Secret Service’s actions. Darcy “didn’t believe the protest’s premature end was an accident,” The Daily Caller reported in July 2012. (RELATED: CNN’s Oliver Darcy Tried Calling Out The Daily Caller — It didn’t Go So Well)
“To me, it seems like a bit of an overreaction to evacuate the entire — like — I don’t know. Was the White House evacuated?” Darcy told a DC reporter at the time.
“It did seem very odd that during a protest of Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama in front of the White House that all of a sudden there was a mysterious bag left — accidentally, right?” Darcy continued.
Darcy continued to wonder whether agents really had to clear the area, claiming he had been to “multiple protests” in Washington, D.C., and never had to clear the area.
Members of the New York Police Department are pictured outside the Time Warner Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City after a suspicious package was found inside the CNN Headquarters in New York, U.S., Oct. 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs
“I really don’t know, but she [the backpack’s owner] looked like she was pretty sincere that she left it accidentally, but I’m not a Secret Service agent so I don’t know what the protocol is. … I’ve taken part in multiple protests in front of the Supreme Court, in front of the Capitol building, in front of the White House. Never have I seen anything like this before,” said Darcy.
A Secret Service spokesman later bristled at the implication that their goal was to shut down Darcy’s protest and said they cleared the area “for public safety.”
Darcy, now a reporter at CNN, has turned into a critic of the GOP and President Donald Trump. In particular, he mocked conspiracy theories floating around social media that Wednesday’s multiple bomb threats were a “false flag.”
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