On Monday, Donald Trump traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the graves of the 13 soldiers killed three years ago, August 26, 2021, during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He had come to Arlington at the request of several family members of the fallen.
As Trump aides made their way into Section 60 of the cemetery, where recent casualties had been laid to rest, a man, presumably an official with the cemetery, tried to physically block them from entering. The cemetery has a strict policy that no campaign events can be filmed in Section 60 unless it is by cemetery personnel.
What happened next is unclear. What's certain is that there was an altercation of some kind that may have gotten physical. The Trump campaign denies that any physical altercation took place.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: "We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises, and for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," Cheung said in the statement.
Federal law bars candidates from conducting campaign events at national cemeteries. An official with the cemetery confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it “reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants” in the Monday event.
The confusion stems from the family inviting Trump to participate in the ceremony. Cheung apparently believes it was allowed because the families requested Trump's presence.
Trump was not involved in the incident and was unaware of the controversy.
Trump campaign aide Steven Cheung said on X that the campaign was “granted access to have a photographer there.” Some family members of the fallen service members who Trump honored also posted a statement saying that they welcomed Trump.
“They wanted Donald Trump there and thank God we have a president who stands with veterans,” said Vance. He also said the media was creating a story where there wasn’t one.
A representative for Harris didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment after Vance’s remarks at the rally. Earlier, Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a CNN interview the altercation was “pretty sad,” but called it not surprising coming from the Trump team.
Part of the controversy was a misunderstanding between overzealous Trump aides and Arlington officials. Campaign aides are paid to carry out instructions aggressively, and when they're told the boss wants a picture, they will get that picture come hell or high water. I've seen aides push aside a little old lady who was blocking the view of a TV camera.
But the Arlington official was in the right. He was probably less polite than he should have been but the law is the law and even if the families wanted Trump there, they didn't have the authority to waive the rules and allow a campaign photographer to take video or pictures.
“Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened,” Vance said, responding to a reporter’s question about the incident, “and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up.”
After a pause, he said, “She can go to hell.”
Where was Joe Biden during the ceremony to honor the dead soldiers killed on his watch? At his beach house sunning himself.
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