BONUS PHOTO 2: A cop driving up …
BONUS PHOTO 2: A cop driving up Pennsylvania Ave., as part of a motorcade.
Everything I’m reading (on Twitter mostly) is suggesting that it was the Presidential motorcade. Obama was scheduled for a fundraiser at 7 PM, and the photo was taken at 7:05. Other people put up videos of the motorcade driving down the mall, and they were presumably correct in determining who it was; the order of vehicles in their videos matched the order of vehicles I saw.
This is all a long way of saying that I think I accidentally almost walked into the President’s fundraiser.
I saw the motorcade traveling northwest on Pennsylvania and then making a sharp turn onto L Street heading eastward. I then walked a few blocks over, to 24th between L and M.
The western side of 24th was completely blocked off by a line of cop motorcycles. People were walking up and down the eastern side. From there, I could see down an alley that there were some tents set up with caterers behind. So presumably the fundraiser is going on in those tents.
I was up there to take a look at a Zipcar that I had reserved. The car was parked in a garage in an apartment at 24th and M, which was on the side of the street that was blocked off, and which was right next door to the fundraiser. The door to the apartment, though, was further up the street, so the cops were letting people in and out of the apartment.
From the apartment lobby I went down to the garage, found the Zipcar, and—couldn’t find my way out. Instead of coming back to the elevator, I ended up walking up through the garage driveway onto the street.
Right behind the police blockade.
If any of them found it odd that some random guy had just popped up in the cordoned-off area, they didn’t say so. I quickly scooted to the other side of the street before they could say anything.