Exclusive
The Democratic National Convention deciding to go fully virtual this year is saving everyone millions of dollars … TMZ has learned.
According to federal docs we obtained, the total cost of protecting everyone involved in the week-long DNC events will run around $1.5 million — which also includes putting bodies on the ground at Joe‘s house in Wilmington, DE … where he’ll deliver his acceptance speech.
While a million-bucks plus is nothing to sneeze at — it’s a helluva lot cheaper than the original plan, which would’ve seen the Service spending way more in security coverage had the convention been held in person in Milwaukee — something they scrapped very recently.
If there were conventions in convention halls, the Secret Service was anticipating security expenses at almost $4 mil for Joe and co., and practically double that for Trump.
Considering this order of $1.5 mil appears to encompass everyone participating in the DNC — it’s likely the government spent little to no extra money accommodating Biden’s change of location. Presumably, he’s already had people stationed — and getting a few extra agents on his detail this week probably isn’t breaking the bank.
All things considered — going digital is saving the Dems (plus, you and us) millions that can and hopefully will be better spent elsewhere … say, for coronavirus relief funds, for example.
Lastly and hilariously, the feds seem to have a big internet bill ahead … various agencies filed for over $27k in IT help desk services for the virtual DNC. For that kind of money, better be no glitches!