US Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump.
Brendan Mcdermid | Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for his filming at Arlington National Cemetery and accused him of exploiting his visit for political purposes, which is prohibited.
“Let me be clear: The former president violated sacred ground, and it was all for a political stunt,” Harris wrote in a lengthy X-post. “This is a man who cannot understand anything other than service to himself.”
Half an hour later, Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, fired back at Harris in his own social media post: “President Trump was there at the invitation of the families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence.”
“Why don’t you get off social media and launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?” Vance added.
The Trump team repeated that line of defense in its own social media post, responding to Harris: “You have not EVEN taken responsibility for the 13 heroes killed on your watch – and this despite boasting about being the last person in the room.”
Last week, Trump came under fire for his visit to Arlington Cemetery on Monday. According to a US Army spokesman, his campaign staff “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery worker who was trying to enforce federal laws prohibiting “political activities” on military cemetery grounds.
Trump traveled to the cemetery to commemorate the third anniversary of the killing of 13 U.S. soldiers in a bomb attack at Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He repeatedly blamed President Joe Biden and Harris for the attack.
While Trump met with the victims' families, his campaign team took several photos and videos, some of which were posted on his social media platforms.
Arlington Cemetery issued a statement confirming the incident between the campaign team and the cemetery worker, which NPR first reported.
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election activities at U.S. Army military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others who are there for that purpose or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign,” the cemetery's statement said.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly denied any physical altercation and said it had permission to send a photographer and videographer to the site. A Trump campaign spokesman said the incident was the result of a “psychological fit” by a cemetery worker.
Trump said on Friday that he only took photos at the scene because the victims' families had requested it.
“I was standing at different graves with different people and taking pictures. I didn't want to take pictures, but I wanted to take them if they wanted to take them,” he said in a moderated conversation with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.
The Harris team has capitalized on the controversy by mocking Trump for his lack of respect for U.S. troops and pointing to several other incidents in which the former president faced criticism for allegedly making derogatory remarks about veterans, which he denies.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump,” Harris wrote in her post on Saturday. “I believe that anyone who cannot fulfill this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”
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