Arlington National Cemetery officials on Tuesday acknowledged an unspecified \u201cincident\u201d during Donald Trump\u2019s visit on Monday on the three-year anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal, as dueling allegations of misbehavior overshadowed an event to honor American war dead.<\/p>\n
An NPR report on Tuesday cited an unidentified source with knowledge of the incident who said Trump campaign staff pushed and verbally attacked a cemetery official who tried to stop them from taking photos and video in an area of the cemetery called Section 60 where many U.S. service members who died in recent conflicts are buried. The cemetery said in a statement that federal law bars photography for political campaign purposes at the site.<\/p>\n
But Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said that \u201cthere was no physical altercation as described,\u201d that the campaign was given permission to bring a photographer, and that they are \u201cprepared to release footage\u201d to defend against \u201cdefamatory claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheung also claimed, without providing evidence or details, that \u201can unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump\u2019s team during a very solemn ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to an inquiry about an alleged altercation during Trump\u2019s visit, Arlington National Cemetery issued a statement that read: \u201cWe can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.\u201d The organization did not share more details. It was not immediately clear to whom the report was filed, but the incident occurred on U.S. Army property. Army headquarters and the service\u2019s criminal investigation division did not immediately respond to requests Tuesday night for clarification.<\/p>\n
Visitors have long taken graveside photographs in Arlington National Cemetery, including in Section 60. But in a statement released on Tuesday, defense officials drew a distinction between Trump\u2019s actions and those of typical visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate\u2019s campaign,\u201d the cemetery\u2019s statement said. \u201cArlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign did not immediately share the footage they claimed to have.<\/p>\n
They shared a statement from Cheryl Juels, whose niece Nicole Gee died in the Afghanistan exit and who joined Trump at the cemetery on Monday. Juels said she and her family \u201cabsolutely welcomed and appreciated having video and photography there with us during the time we spent with President Trump.\u201d She praised Trump for visiting Section 60 to lay flowers at gravesites, talk with family members and discuss Gee\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Trump visited the cemetery on Monday on the third anniversary of an Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing that unfolded outside the Kabul airport as the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, killing 13 American service members and scores more Afghans.<\/p>\n
As president, Trump struck a deal with the Taliban to exchange prisoners and set a timetable to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. But he criticized the ultimate exit during the Biden presidency, saying the execution was botched.<\/p>\n
The GOP presidential nominee joined a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns and spoke with relatives of those slain in the Kabul bombing, as his campaign attacked the Biden administration\u2019s handling of the Afghanistan exit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis month marks the three-year anniversary of the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country,\u201d Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account that day.<\/p>\n
The allegations published by NPR come as Trump pitches himself as a champion of the military but also faces scrutiny of his comments on veterans. Trump\u2019s former chief of staff, John Kelly, has publicly accused him of referring to American War casualties as \u201csuckers,\u201d an allegation Trump denies.<\/p>\n
Trump also drew fire earlier this month for saying that an award recognizing civilian contributions to society is \u201cmuch better\u201d than one bestowed on members of the military because many of those who receive that award are wounded or killed in combat.<\/p>\n
Top campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said in a statement Tuesday that Trump went to the Arlington Cemetery at the invitation of Gold Star families who lost loved ones in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and added: \u201cFor a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump\u2019s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed [sic] grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaCivita, who was wounded in combat as Marine, has led GOP efforts to criticize Democratic vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz\u2019s descriptions of his military record and previously helmed the Republican campaign to attack John F. Kerry\u2019s military service in the 2004 election.<\/p>\n
Arlington National Cemetery is considered hallowed ground in the U.S. military, and is managed by the Army. Section 60, where Trump visited Monday, is the final resting place for many U.S. service members who were killed in recent conflicts, including some of the U.S. service members who died in the Afghanistan suicide bombing.<\/p>\n
Hau Chu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Arlington National Cemetery officials on Tuesday acknowledged an unspecified \u201cincident\u201d during Donald Trump\u2019s visit on Monday on the three-year anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal, as dueling allegations of misbehavior overshadowed an event to honor American war dead. An NPR report on Tuesday cited an unidentified source with knowledge of the incident who said Trump campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}