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Politics

Clinton campaign gives new meaning to the term ‘rope line’ at New Hampshire parade

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July 4, 2015 at 5:33 p.m. EDT
Hillary Clinton walks in the Fourth of July Parade in Gorham, N.H., but a rope keeps reporters away. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)
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It wasn't like A-list celebrities or pro ballers were being hounded by the paparazzi at Saturday's Independence Day parade in Gorham, N.H. It was just Hillary Clinton and the workaday press corps that regularly follows her around.

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So why did the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign see fit to put up a rope line to keep reporters and photographers at bay while Clinton shook hands and greeted voters during an afternoon procession up Main Street?

Our colleague Philip Rucker reports that initially the press had been able to get close to Clinton and observe and listen as she chatted up voters. Then he said campaign aides unfurled a rope that stretched across the street, blocking access to the candidate. Rucker said they were kept 10 to 15 feet away from Clinton and could no longer hear what she was saying to people.

But the press could clearly hear what some people were saying to her. A group of protesters followed her along the route shouting such sentiments as "What about Benghazi?" and "Show us your e-mails!"

The conservative news site Twitchy was clearly enjoying the spectacle.

The New Hampshire Republican Party denounced "the use of a rope line to protect the arrogant Democrat frontrunner on a public street."

“Hillary Clinton continues to demonstrate her obvious contempt and disdain for the Granite State’s style of grassroots campaigning," Jennifer Horn, chairman of the state GOP, said in a statement. "The use of a rope line at a New Hampshire parade is a sad joke and insults the traditions of our First-in-the-Nation primary."

Clinton herself was quite pleased with the event:

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