Controversy is growing in the United States over Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington Military Cemetery, with Kamala Harris accusing her Republican rival on Saturday of having “disrespected” this “sacred ground” for many American soldiers who died in combat.
The former president visited the cemetery near Washington on Monday for a ceremony honoring the 13 soldiers killed during the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
An altercation broke out during the visit between Donald Trump’s team, who were trying to take photos of the event, the administration of the cemetery, where some 400,000 veterans and their families are buried, and two US presidents, including John Fitzgerald Kennedy, said on Wednesday.
“Donald Trump chose to film a video there, which resulted in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for a political stunt,” the American vice president reacted on X.
The Republican candidate’s entourage responded on Wednesday by sharing a press release in which the soldiers’ families assured that the presence of photographers had indeed been “validated” by them.
The U.S. Army, in a rare clarification, confirmed Thursday that an Arlington employee was “shoved roughly” during Donald Trump’s visit as she tried to enforce a federal law banning political activity on the cemetery grounds.
A US Army spokesman deplored “an unfortunate incident” and defended the “professionalism” of the cemetery worker.
“Simple and sacred duty”
Kamala Harris again criticized Donald Trump’s attitude on Saturday, saying that the cemetery was “not a place to play politics.”
“If there is one thing we as Americans can agree on, it is that our veterans, military families and service members should be celebrated, never denigrated and treated with nothing less than our utmost respect and gratitude,” she wrote.
“It is my conviction that a person who is incapable of fulfilling this simple and sacred duty should never again” be president of the United States, the Democrat added.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance responded Saturday, saying: “President Trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones lost their lives because of your incompetence.”
“Why don’t you get off social media and open an investigation into these unnecessary deaths?” the senator said on the X network.
Trump’s team has been consistently criticizing Democrats over the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Asked Friday by the television channel MSNBC about the advisability of publishing a campaign video in the cemetery, Donald Trump pleaded ignorance.
“I don’t know who did this,” he said, accusing the Biden administration of “engineering” to create controversy.
At a rally Friday night in Johnston, Pennsylvania, he again addressed the incident at length, saying it was the families of the fallen soldiers who asked him to take a photo with them.
“I said, ‘Sure,’ I wasn’t doing it to get publicity that I don’t need,” he said.
“Joe Biden killed these young men because he was incompetent and they come and tell me I’m using their graves for my PR, I didn’t do any of that, and I’ll tell you, it was an incident,” he added.