Secret Service Asks About Photographers’ Race
On July 30, the day before Dick Cheney appeared in Tucson, a rally organizer for Bush-Cheney asked about the race of several local journalists.
The campaign “insisted on knowing the race” of an Arizona Daily Star photographer, Mamta Popat, who was assigned to cover the event, the paper reported.
Managing Editor Teri Hayt refused. “It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted,” she said, according to an article by C. J. Karamargin in that paper on July 31. Popat ultimately did get to photograph
Cheney.Danny Diaz, a spokesman for Bush-Cheney, told the paper that the requested information was “to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the Vice President of the United States.”