Former President Donald Trump’s campaign continues to deny reports of an altercation between campaign staff and a cemetery official at Arlington National Cemetery. On Wednesday, his running mate, Senator JD Vance, downplayed the incident at a rally in Pennsylvania as a “minor disagreement” and accused the media of exaggerating it.
“You people in the media, you act like Donald Trump did a TV commercial at a grave,” Vance said. “He was there to provide emotional support to many brave Americans who lost loved ones they never should have lost, and there happened to be a camera there, and someone gave him permission to put that camera there. That’s not a gross violation of federal law. This is a president who did what all presidents should do: He showed up and provided support to his own people.”
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Federal law prohibits political activity, including photography, at military cemeteries. A Trump spokesman claimed that cemetery officials were “obviously suffering from a mental breakdown.”
Trump’s campaign team later released a TikTok video of Trump’s visit to the cemetery.
Trump visited the cemetery after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in honor of 13 U.S. soldiers killed three years ago during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport. Trump has publicly criticized how President Joe Biden’s administration has handled the withdrawal from the country.
Trump continues to face criticism from some veterans over his visit, including the progressive political action group VoteVets, which called the campaign’s actions disgusting.
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The cemetery worker involved in the incident refused to file a complaint because he feared retaliation from Trump supporters, the New York Times reported.