Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport will host a Joe Biden rally Friday, less than a week after the airport rejected plans to hold a rally for President Trump there last weekend.
Biden will address supporters at Avflight Milwaukee on the northern corner of the airport grounds. Just last week, Mitchell International officials canceled a planned Trump rally at Freight Runners Express, citing a number of reasons including expected crowd size.
"It's our understanding that Joe Biden will have a small private meeting with about a dozen people on Friday at AvFlight, which operates a private aircraft terminal," said airport spokesman Harold Mester. "We have been told that the meeting is not open to the public."
Trump's rally, which was moved to Waukesha County Airport, had been expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees.
"The difference is that [Biden's event] involves a much smaller number of people and would occur inside a building rather than on the airfield, and it would not impact airport operations," Mester said.
Freight Runners CEO Chip Zens believed that the cancelation of Trump's rally on his property was a partisan political decision since his runway was cleared for use during the Democratic National Convention over the summer.
"It seems highly partisan, he told Today's TMJ 4. "Considering that our ramp was already vetted and was supposed to be used for the Democratic Convention."
The Milwaukee County Executive's office, which runs the airport, said in a statement that because the Trump rally was "non-aeronautical in nature," holding it would violate the terms of Freight Runners' lease.
"There’s nothing in the airport leases that prohibit any kind of gatherings; as per previous political gatherings during the past 15ish years," a source with firsthand knowledge of airport operations told "The Dan O'Donnell Show.
Mitchell International Airport has been used for large political rallies in the past. Both Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000 and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan in 2012 both held pre-Election Day rallies at the airport.