Reporters covering Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rallies are now required to be escorted to and from the restrooms should they need to use them before, during or immediately after the event.
NBC News’ Katy Tur first reported the campaign’s newest rule for members of the press on Twitter Tuesday night. Tur was present at the billionaire’s most recent rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Trump campaign now requiring media to have bathroom escorts at his rallies when leaving “the pen” #watchthemedia.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 25, 2015
“Let’s be clear, this is even happening AFTER the event,” Tur tweeted, with a picture of the cleared out venue, once the rally had concluded.
While Trump’s Secret Service detail is responsible for doing the escorting, a spokesperson for the agency was unsure whether the bathroom buddy rule was the campaign’s doing or a security measure proposed by Secret Service.
“It’s a complicated issue,” agency spokesman Robert Hovak told the Washington Examiner.
“Part of it is a little bit of a learning curve for the campaign to understand how the Service works … these are issues that come up in every campaign especially when the staff [is] not familiar with how we operate,” he said.
Hobak noted, however, that bathroom escorts could be “advantageous” to members of the press under certain circumstances.
“If someone needed to leave to go to the bathroom, it’s very possible the restroom is outside of the secured area so at that point they’d need to be escorted or they’d have to come back through the security checkpoint again,” he said.
Trump has come under fire recently for restricting press to a small “pen” during his campaign events and denying credentials to outlets giving him unfavorable coverage.
Representatives from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC and CBS reportedly participated in a conference call earlier this week to discuss the campaign’s decision to limit press access and how to pressure Trump’s aides to reverse the prohibitive policies.
