Last week a Secret Service advance team told staff members they and their families would be invited to the rally (as a thank-you for all their help), and took down their names, social security numbers and birth dates so they could run “background checks.” Lorello provided the info for herself, her husband and their four and a half-month-old daughter. On Monday morning, staff members were informed that the guest list had changed. From the e-mail:
“They decided that the Republican staff members of Journal Pavilion could bring their families. The rest of us were told that our families were no longer welcome. … I was so humiliated, I cried. And it takes a lot to make me cry. It took this man [Bush] and his staff a period of three days to completely divide our staff. What do you think he is doing to this country? … Oh—and one last thing. The Republican party was reporting that there were over 10,000 people at the rally—big lie. There were less than 6,000.”
