US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for his filming at Arlington National Cemetery and accused him of exploiting his visit for political purposes, which is prohibited.
“Let me be clear: The former president violated sacred ground, all because of a political ploy.” Harris wrote in a protracted X-post. “This is a man who cannot understand anything other than service to himself.”
Half an hour later, Trump’s running mate, the senator from Ohio, arrived. JD Vanceshot back at Harris in his own social media post: “President Trump was there at the invitation of the families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence.”
“Why don’t you get off social media and launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?” Vance added.
The Trump campaign team repeated this line of defense by itself social media postand responded to Harris: “You have not EVEN taken responsibility for the 13 heroes killed on your watch – and this despite boasting about being the last person in the room.”
Last week, Trump got here under fire for his visit to Arlington Cemetery on Monday. According to a US Army spokesman, his campaign staff “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery employee who was attempting to implement federal laws prohibiting “political activities” on military cemetery grounds.
Trump traveled to the cemetery to commemorate the third anniversary of the killing of 13 U.S. soldiers in a bomb attack at Kabul airport in the course of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He repeatedly blamed President Joe Biden and Harris for the attack.
While Trump was meeting with the families of the victims, his campaign team took several photos and videos, a few of which were posted on his Social Media platforms.
Arlington Cemetery issued a press release confirming the incident between the campaign team and the cemetery employee, which NPR first reported.
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election activities at U.S. Army military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for that purpose or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign,” the cemetery's statement said.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly denied any physical altercation and said it had permission to send a photographer and videographer to the location. A Trump campaign spokesman said the incident was the results of a “psychological fit” by a cemetery employee.
Trump said on Friday that he only took photos on the scene since the victims' families had requested it.
“I was standing at different graves with different people and taking pictures. I didn't want to take pictures, but I wanted to take them if they wanted to take them,” he said in a moderated conversation with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.
The Harris team has capitalized on the controversy by mocking Trump for his lack of respect for U.S. troops and pointing to several other incidents by which the previous president faced criticism for allegedly making derogatory remarks about veterans, which he denies.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump,” Harris wrote in her post on Saturday. “I believe that anyone who cannot fulfill this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”
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