August 29, 2024
On Tuesday, August 27, Arlington National Cemetery confirmed an incident took place when former President Donald Trump visited there Monday to commemorate the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate attacks in Afghanistan, reports NBC News.
“We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed,” the statement read.
“Federal 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’s campaign,” said the cemetery in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
More than 150 Afghans also were killed. Parents of fallen service members have expressed anger at President Joe Biden’s Administration for a lack of answers surrounding the attack.
After the ceremony, Trump headed to Section 60 of the cemetery, where some service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried and recording is typically heavily restricted.
NPR first reported on Tuesday that two Trump campaign staffers had a confrontation with a cemetery official who tried to prevent them from filming.
Trump Communications Director Steven Cheung denied some of the details of the report and said the campaign was willing to release footage to support its claim.
“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung said in a statement. “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 followed up in a statement on X, saying Trump was allowed to have a photographer there.
Research contact: @NBCNews