Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday criticized former President Donald Trump’s controversial photo op at Arlington National Cemetery with Gold Star families, saying he “disrespected sacred ground.”
Despite being invited by Gold Star families, the Democratic presidential nominee accused Trump of staging a “political stunt” after his campaign argued with a cemetery worker who tried to prevent them from filming and photographing a wreath-laying ceremony in Section 60, the final resting place for military personnel killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“This is not a place for politics,” Harris said in a lengthy statement posted to social media Saturday afternoon.
“I want to be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for a political stunt,” she continued.
“This is not new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ and who has denigrated Medal of Honor recipients,” Harris said. Trump has long denied making the “suckers” and “losers” remarks cited in a 2020 article in The Atlantic.
The U.S. military said Trump campaign staffers “brusquely pushed back” a cemetery official who tried to prevent staffers from filming the former president attending the ceremony, in accordance with federal law.
There is no law prohibiting the taking of photos at the national ceremony, but a spokesperson for the cemetery told the Post that “federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities at military national cemeteries, including photographers, content creators or any other person present for the purpose of or in direct support of the campaign of a partisan political candidate.”
Section 60 contains the graves of the last victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including three of the 13 American soldiers killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at Kabul International Airport in August 2021.
“Participants in the Aug. 26 ceremony and the Section 60 tour that followed were briefed on federal laws, Army regulations, and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activity on cemetery grounds,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
The families of the 13 soldiers killed during the troop withdrawal issued a statement Wednesday denying they violated Article 60 rules and thanking Trump for “honoring our children and their fallen brothers and sisters.”
“On the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack, the President and his team have conducted themselves with the utmost respect and dignity toward all of our service members, especially our beloved children,” they said.
Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Master Sgt. Taylor Hoover, one of three fallen service members buried at the cemetery, told the Post that it was not a campaign event and that they had personally invited Trump to attend.
Trump’s campaign said the cemetery worker who intervened “suffered from a mental health issue” and that there was “no physical altercation as described.”
New York Post
