BRIDGEPORT - Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett says he walked into an office full of Secret Service agents, Connecticut State police and, of course, his own officers this morning. They had planned for President Barack Obama’s campaign visit for Governor Dannel P. Malloy for over a week. But, the growing Ebola crisis, cause Obama to cancel this evening’s planned trip to the Park City.
“We’ve got to get our hands on this Ebola break out and do what we can to keep everybody safe, especially the nurses and the doctors,” said Bridgeport Mayor, Bill Finch, who said the President did the right thing by not coming today.
But, this afternoon, the Malloy campaign tweeted that the President will indeed come to Bridgeport before election day. Those holding tickets for Wednesday’s event will be given priority in attending his rescheduled appearance for an as yet to be determined date.
The chorus at the Roosevelt Elementary School in Bridgeport has performed at the White House as recently as last spring. So, when school administrators got wind of the President’s scheduled visit to their city, they were hopeful the President would agree to let them perform for him on their turf.
“So, we thought it would be a great time to reconnect if that was at all possible and so a few tweets were sent out,” said Sheena Graham, the school’s choral director. The tweets were directed to Mr. Obama and Governor Malloy this past weekend, complete with a picture of the children with the First Lady.
As of this morning, the school had not received a response from the White House. But, a silver lining, in the President having to cancel today, is that the school will now have time to plan an aggressive Twitter campaign to get the President’s attention for when he ultimately does come to Connecticut.