Dem Retreat “Like A Police State” With Reporters Followed To Bathroom
By Robert Gehl, February 1, 2015.
A New York Times reporter said Democrats are operating their annual retreat “like a police state,” following reporters everywhere – including into the bathroom.
Jeremy Peters called out Democratic Leadership during a press conference at a hotel where the media were corralled across from the actual Dem retreat.
“It was a police state. It was absurd how heavy handed the capitol police and Democratic staff were in trying to control everywhere the press went,” Peters said in an interview with Politico.
Peters said that the paranoid shadowing was unlike anything the press has experienced – either on Capitol Hill or by Republicans at their retreats. California Rep. Xavier Becerra said they were unaware that reporters were being followed and asked for “names.”
It’s reminiscent of how the Clintons handled the press back in September at the “Clinton Global Initiative.” At one point, Clinton’s media handlers waited outside the bathroom stalls for reporters.
At the recent event in Philadelphia, Peters was even denied access to the hotel he was invited to.
“I was an invited guest into this hotel, into the restaurant of the hotel. The staff from the Democratic caucus refused to let me into the hotel, and the Capitol Police told me to leave, even after the congressman went to them and said ‘no, he is my invited guest,’” Peters said.
Peters said he was told by a staffer they were being escorted to prevent them from talking to members of Congress.
