5:00 P.M. EDT, FRIDAY


MR. SCRIMENTI: Thank you all for coming. If everybody could just take one minute to shut your cell phones off or any beepers.
It's my honor to introduce David Norcross, who is the Chairman of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2004 Republican Convention here in New York, and he's here to try to answer some logistical questions regarding the convention. And we're going to start with a little brief opening, and then go to questions.
We'll start with Washington, D.C., first, and then come back to New York, and finish with Washington.
Mr. Norcross.
MR. NORCROSS: Thank you. Thanks very much. We're, what, about two days away, so this day has, for me, been more than a little exciting. There are -- I was in the hall yesterday afternoon. The rug is down, the seats are down, there is people climbing around the rafters and, you know, painting and putting things up and taking things down, but it's beginning to look like a convention hall, and there seems to be at this point no problem.
It's often, at this stage of the game, something happens. You have a plan that was made that isn't going right or somebody decides they want to move to make the podium bigger or smaller or shorter, do some modifying. We do not -- we're not facing any of those problems this time. It looks pretty much like we're ready to roll.
Security, obviously, is going to be -- I don't know how many of you were in Boston -- if you were, you know that security is up a click from what we've all experienced before. I'm finding -- I know it's true of me, I just -- I'm a lot less irritated by security stops and clearances, and so forth, just because I guess I've gotten used to it. And I don't like it and I'm sorry that's the way we have to live, but that's the way we have to live.
We've been doing security and we've been working on security for this convention for a year. NYPD has been working on it for a year. The Secret Service has been working on it. It is a secure site, a very, very difficult place to do any serious mischief. Less serious mischief, it is, after all, New York and we'll find out what that is as the days go by.
So, if you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
MR. SCRIMENTI: Okay. Washington has a question. Let's go to Washington for the first question.
QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Handelsblatt, Germany. I have a question regarding the seats for the press. Obviously, there are assigned seats for the press on the gallery and unassigned seats. Can you tell us the difference, as far as the distance to the stage is concerned and the view? And regarding floor passes, how much time are they valid to talk to the delegates?
MR. NORCROSS: Well, the -- I'm glad you asked me about the distance to the floor because one of the problems with the Garden from the beginning is its size and that it's not very large, as convention halls go. It's smaller than Philadelphia, and Philadelphia was relatively small, and that has been a problem for us from the very beginning. But the good news now for you and for us is that, in a small hall, everybody's got a pretty good view, unless you are obstructed, and none of you are obstructed.
QUESTION: Floor passes?
MR. NORCROSS: Floor passes, I cannot answer the floor pass question. You're going to have to contact media operations for that answer. I'm just not certain and there is no sense misleading you.
MR. SCRIMENTI: New York.
MR. NORCROSS: They are, of course -- they are limited in terms of duration, again, because of the size, but I don't think you're going to find that troublesome.
MR. SCRIMENTI: Sir, if could you wait for the microphone and identify yourself please?
QUESTION: My name is (inaudible). I'm from Dutch press. Are there enough non-assigned seats? That proved to be a problem in Boston.
MR. NORCROSS: The candid answer to that is, "Could I use another thousand seats?" Sure. But we know how many we can get in there and that's the number of tickets we have to issue, so you live with what you've got. I'd like to have more and I'm wondering if the next time, when perhaps both parties go out to select sites, if they don't go to bigger venues.
Does that answer your question? It's limited. I mean, it's not a big place.
QUESTION: Imad Musa, Al Hurra Television.
Mr. Norcross, how many -- what is the capacity? What is the seating capacity in the Madison Square Garden right now?
MR. NORCROSS: Total seats, about 17-5.
QUESTION: 17-5. And there was -- do you have -- do you know anything about the types of journalists accredited? For instance, bloggers -- will they be attending and how many credentials have you set aside for them?
MR. NORCROSS: We have set aside a substantial number of credentials for bloggers. I can't tell you how many there are, but we have a radio row and we've set aside credentials for bloggers. We're aware that technology is making a difference in how conventions get covered and obviously coverage is very important to us so we attempt to accommodate all of that. Radio row -- I fought a few fights to keep radio row inviolate because they are our friends -- mostly.
MR. SCRIMENTI: Let's go back down to Washington, D.C., for the next question.
QUESTION: Giampiero Gramaglia, Italian News Agency ANSA. Can you tell us, please, sir, how many foreign delegations were invited and how many foreign delegates will be present? And where will the foreign delegates be seated?
MR. NORCROSS: There are two programs for foreign visitors. One run by the State Department for ambassadors, and at last count I think there were 65 coming. The other is the International Democrat Union, which is a group of right and right-center parties which is holding a program at the same time, and they will have access to the Garden as a part of that program.
The ambassadors will have assigned seats. And, again, there are not -- there are no bad seats in Madison Square Garden other than those behind the screen, and to the best of my -- that's for the first three days. To the best of my knowledge, we have not put any ambassadors behind the screen, so they should be happy.
QUESTION: Guillemette Faure, French newspaper Le Figaro.
Are you worried about having protestors among the volunteers at the convention?
MR. NORCROSS: Not really. We've done a pretty good job of screening volunteers, I believe. If there are, there are. I'm not a New Yorker, but I guess I have the New York mentality about protestors: What will be, will be. And we may get some. They will be courteously and quickly put outside. Whatever they get to do in the meantime, they get to do in the meantime. I think we've done a pretty good screening job, but I don't think for a moment that it's 100 percent. Just before I left the office, we found one.
QUESTION: Tony Lin from Taiwan. A follow-up on the foreign visitors.
Do you have a number -- in addition to the ambassadors who are already in the States, do you have a number who are actually coming from foreign countries?
MR. NORCROSS: I do not. The 65 ambassadors each have a guest, so that's 130. And the IDU, International Democrat Union, in the past has usually brought 50 or 60 and that's probably what it is this time. I mean, I've not gotten extraordinary requests that surprise me, so it's probably around that number.
QUESTION: Janine Harper from Fuji Television, Japan.
As far as security, I wanted to know what the breakdown was as far as police officers that will be inside Madison Square Garden and those that will be outside in surrounding areas.
MR. NORCROSS: Well, there are, at any one time, 10,000 police officers dealing with convention security, and that includes outside the perimeter and inside the perimeter, and the number that there will be inside is not a number that we're sharing. And it probably won't be the same from one session to the next and they probably won't be in the same place.
QUESTION: (Off mike.)
MR. NORCROSS: Ten thousand, yeah. That's the total commitment of NYPD officers just routinely on duty during the convention.
QUESTION: Julio Schuback German Radio.
You already mentioned you found an infiltrator within your organization. So how will you deal with infiltrators? Will they be charged for trespassing?
MR. NORCROSS: No, we're going to suggest that he go back home and not come back in anymore. I mean, we're not looking to make a problem any bigger than it is. We found him. He doesn't belong there. He was lying to get there. We know it and now he leaves and doesn't get back. And, of course, our security people now know who he is and what he looks like, so a second try might lead to, you know, a harsher reaction from us.
QUESTION: Sir, could you go down just a general idea of the events starting on Monday, I think, at 10:00 a.m., an idea about the schedule for the four days that (inaudible)?
MR. NORCROSS: There are two sessions on Monday. The opening and the first session is 10 o'clock. It runs to, I think, 2:00 to 2:15. And then we're back in at 7:00 on Monday night, or 8:00. We've been juggling the times around and I'm --
MR. REYES: 7:45?
MR. NORCROSS: 7:45?
MR. REYES: Yeah, 7:45 to 11:15.
MR. NORCROSS: To 11:15. Right. That's Monday. Tuesday -- have you got it there?
MR. REYES: Yeah, I do. 7:00 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. That's Tuesday, August 31st.
MR. NORCROSS: Only one session Tuesday.
MR. REYES: On Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. and Thursday 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
MR. NORCROSS: The President will be done by 11:00. And I assume that we have now released this. I think it's been a pretty open secret that Thursday night, barring a last-minute change, will be done in the round with the President in the center of the hall.
And the hall, as I intimated before when I was answering the question about the sight lines and good seats/bad seats view, while the size of the hall, in response to your question in terms of seats, is troublesome, when you are on the floor, as I was yesterday, and you look at what is around you, you have high, close-in viewers and I think it's going to be a great experience in the hall and, although it is not my expertise, I should think that it would project pretty well on TV.
QUESTION: I understand that Michael Moore got a press pass to represent USA Today. How do you react to that?
MR. NORCROSS: Well, actually, we're bickering to see who gets to remove him. The CEO wants to remove him. I want to remove him. We'll see. No harm in trying, you know.
QUESTION: Marta Torres Ruiz, La Razon. There's going to be any conference, any press conference, any moments for media?
MR. NORCROSS: Will there be press conferences? Yes. And there is -- I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Garden, but Madison Square Garden actually has a theater in it and the theater has been completely redone, as has the main hall, and that is where that's placed precisely for press conferences.
QUESTION: What time?
MR. NORCROSS: They will be scheduled off and on, early in the morning and then through the sessions. So that space will be used. You take delegates off the floor and take them there and do a press conference, and then we will hold information conferences before the sessions every day.
QUESTION: And what is the theme of the convention?
MR. NORCROSS: The theme of the convention is, "Building a More Hopeful America and a Safer World." The idea being that the President's foreign policy, the purpose of that is a safer world, realizing that America has the land of opportunity and there is an opportunity for fulfillment that we are certainly -- we have certainly not accomplished everything that a society can or should want to do, and that another four years under this President, he will remain steadfast in terms of his foreign policy and try to turn to more economic security, healthcare and improvement of our domestic life situations. Hopeful.
QUESTION: Al Awaji, Jiji Press, Japan. I have two questions.
What time is the platform going to be adopted on Monday? And also, when will the nomination of President Bush and Vice President Cheney take place?
MR. NORCROSS: Let's do platform first. Platform will be in the morning on Monday. I'm guessing 10:00.
MR. NORCROSS: It depends on a number of things. And, at that point, the convention is not running on the kind of clockwork that it needs to run on in the evening to make sure that we get the principal speaker in primetime television. So it's a little bit of guesswork there.
There is less division and problem with the platform than -- I've been at every convention since 1976 and there is probably less controversy this time than any time in the last 25 years. I must say, I was a bit surprised by that but I guess in a closely divided electorate we have decided that it's more important to work together and reelect George Bush than it is to fight about the platform in New York.
What was your second question?
QUESTION: Nomination process, and how is it going to happen?
MR. NORCROSS: The nomination, as you -- the Vice President's nomination will be by acclamation. Our rules provide, where there is only one candidate for Vice President, we can do it by acclamation. The President's nomination will have to be accomplished by a roll call of the states.
There is no mystery what that roll call is going to produce, but we will start it Monday night and we'll do a few Monday night and we'll do a few Tuesday night and then we'll finish it Wednesday night. That's so that we don't go through two hours of simply calling a state and a state announcing its vote. You can't really eliminate that because the -- that's one of the great pleasures of the delegation chairmen. They get to stand up and talk simply about their state bird or whatever, and then they announce the vote. So we have to preserve that opportunity.
QUESTION: (Off mike.)
MR. NORCROSS: The roll call will commence on Monday for President and we'll do part of it, then we'll do some more on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we'll nominate the Vice President by acclamation and finish the Presidential roll call, and then Thursday he accepts.
QUESTION: How will the convention address today's report from the New York Times about the increasing number of poor and those without healthcare in the United States?
MR. NORCROSS: Well, I would -- I think that was anticipated by what the theme of the convention is, and that is a more hopeful America and an improved America. I have pointed out that we are not assuming or claiming that we are perfect or that we have accomplished everything that we would -- that we had set about to accomplish four years ago. The war on terror has been a distraction and it has distracted from domestic politics. It's the President's hope that he can, in the next four years, go back to addressing some of that. Healthcare, clearly, is one. It is not a surprise that there is work to do. That report didn't change our view of what the theme of the convention should be or what the efforts of the next four years will be.
QUESTION: Many are expecting more demonstrations. I wonder if that includes you and if that kind of (inaudible) play any role in arranging this particular convention.
MR. NORCROSS: No. I expect demonstrations. I don't know what is more and what is less. I think there will be a significant amount of people here to demonstrate, and that's fine. It's their right to do it and it's something that New York is used to.
It did not have anything to do with our choosing New York. The interesting thing about that question is that some people have suggested that had we not picked New York we wouldn't have as many demonstrators. The counter to that, as the Mayor said to me this morning, I think with the body politic as evenly divided as it is today, we would have had a lot of demonstrators no matter where we went and that New York is probably better able to deal with it than any other city in the United States.
So, no, we didn't pick it for that reason, but I think the end result is that we're in a place that will be able to handle the demonstrators. And one of the things that I see among the delegates who are here already, and I have sensed in the preparations for this event, we've taken a rather different view of demonstrators. I mean, I just, as a party, we are not going to be surprised and we aren't going to react and they get to say and do what they want to say and do. I mean, the five naked guys running around Madison Square Garden -- or not inside but outside yesterday -- well, it is what it is. And I must say that the guys, you know, coming down the front of the Plaza, that was pretty cool. (Laughter.)
MR. SCRIMENTI: Let's go to Washington, D.C., for the next question, please.
QUESTION: Liberation, France. I wanted to know if you can tell us about the dissidents within the Republican Party, the pro-choice and the Log Cabin Republicans, if you are going to allow them to voice their views during the convention.
MR. NORCROSS: Well, there will be some pro-choice Republicans speaking at the convention. Rudy Guiliani, Governor Pataki is, in fact, introducing the President, and I think they are both pro-choice. So there will be pro-choice speakers at the convention. The platform, as I alluded to before, was remarkably short of the usual strife over that issue, which may mean that we're, as a party, coming to grips that we do have two sides of this tent and we can live with each other and the most important thing is to elect the President.
The Log Cabin Republicans, in fact, have an event in New York in conjunction with the convention and I believe met the other day with the Deputy Chairman of the Party. So, you know, they're part of -- they're Republicans. They're part of this. We welcome their support. We may agree, we may not agree, but we agree basically we're Republicans and that George Bush is a better choice than John Kerry. And that, after all, is, to us, right now, and from now until November, the most important thing.
QUESTION: How many, in total, convention-related people do you think are coming to New York by this weekend? And if you know, how many journalists are accredited for the whole process?
MR. NORCROSS: I don't know the answer to that. The number that we used and continue to use is a total of 50,000, and it is my recollection that 17,000 is the number of journalists anticipated. We are always -- it is always remarkable that you all outnumber the delegates in the Republican Convention about 3 to 1, but you are, after all, a pretty important part of what's going on.
QUESTION: Tim Wilson, Sunday Star-Times, New Zealand. I'm there for a newspaper but I'm also going to be doing like a little television report. Will I be able to move around with impunity? I won't because of --
MR. NORCROSS: No, nobody's going to move with impunity, including me. It's going to be difficult to move around because it's going to be crowded. But the good news is that you won't, you know, you won't have one of those huge cameras that you used to have to take on the floor and move eight people in order to get around.
It's not going to be easy. I mean, the floor is small. We resisted some calls to make the aisles narrower, so they will be the same as they were in Philadelphia.
Did you go to Boston?
QUESTION: No.
MR. NORCROSS: No? Were they about regular-sized aisles or did they make the aisles smaller in Boston? Average? You didn't notice a difference? Well, ours haven't changed. But I'd be less than candid if I told you I thought it was going to be easy to get around. You know, delegates never stay in their seats.
MR. SCRIMENTI: Thank you very much.
MR. NORCROSS: Thank you all for coming. Thank you very much.
[End]