Secret Service says there are no plans to change security measures for RNC

Secret Service and local law enforcement representatives said Sunday there are no plans to change the security measures for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.

Law enforcement officers reiterated their confidence in the security apparatus already in place, saying their security footprint will remain as planned despite Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

“We’re not anticipating any changes to our operational security plans for this event,” said the Secret Service’s RNC coordinator, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino. She declined to answer several questions about Saturday’s events in Pennsylvania, citing her RNC-specific jurisdiction.

Gibson-Cicchino emphasized that the security planning in Milwaukee has been underway for 18 months and has already been designated the highest level of security event.

Pressed about specific threats to this week’s gathering, Michael Hensle, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Milwaukee, said that there is “no known specific articulated threat to the RNC during or any specific individual attendee” but that there are higher levels of online “chatter” about the assassination attempt.

At a separate news briefing earlier Sunday, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said the number of online threats of violence, which was already on the upswing, has risen since the attack.

Given the possibility of guns in the soft security perimeter around the Fiserv Forum arena, where the convention will take place — a consequence of Wisconsin’s open-carry laws — Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said the city is unable to restrict guns anywhere in Milwaukee under those state regulations.

“We as a city cannot legislate out of that,” Norman said of the state’s open-carry