U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Trump.
Brendan McDermid | Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump on Saturday for filming at Arlington National Cemetery, accusing him of using his visit for political purposes, which is prohibited.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected the Holy Land and this was all a political stunt,” Harris Written in a very long X post. “This is a man who can’t understand anything but self-service.”
Half an hour later, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator. JD VanceHarris fired back in her own social media post: “President Trump is here at the invitation of the families whose loved ones have lost their lives because of your incompetence.”
“Why not get off social media and launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?” Vance added.
The Trump campaign responded to this line of defense on its own social media postal“, responded to Harris: “While you brag about being the last man in the room, you never take responsibility for the 13 heroes who were killed on your watch.
Trump has been criticized over the past week for his Monday visit to Arlington Cemetery, during which, according to one official, his campaign staff “suddenly pushed aside a cemetery worker” who was trying to enforce the ban Federal law governing “political activities” at military cemeteries.
Trump’s visit to the cemetery was to mark the third anniversary of a bombing at Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members, an incident he has repeatedly blamed on President Joe Biden and Harris.
As Trump met with victims’ families, his campaign staff took various photos and videos, some of which were posted to his website social media platform.
Arlington Cemetery issued a statement confirming the incident between the event and cemetery staff, which was first reported by NPR.
“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities at Army National Military Cemetery, including for photographers, content creators or any other person to participate in or directly support the campaign of a partisan political candidate,” the cemetery said.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly denied any physical altercation and said it had approved photographers and photographers at the venue. A spokesman for the Trump campaign said the incident was caused by “mental health issues” among the cemetery staff.
Trump said on Friday that he was only taking photos at the scene because the families of the victims wanted to.
“I stood on different graves with different people and took pictures. I didn’t want to take pictures, but if they wanted to take pictures, I wanted to take pictures,” he said during a moderated conversation with Freedom Moms co-founder Tiffany.
The Harris campaign slammed the controversy, mocking Trump for disrespecting U.S. troops and pointing to several other incidents in which the former president reportedly faced backlash for making disparaging remarks about veterans, which he denies. Got this.
“This is nothing new to Donald Trump,” Harris wrote in her Saturday post. “I believe that anyone who is unable to fulfill this simple and sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”
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