Vice President Kamala Harris slammed former President Donald Trump’s controversial photo-op at Arlington National Cemetery with Gold Star families on Monday, claiming he “disrespected sacred ground.”
Even though he was invited by Gold Star families, Democratic presidential nominee accused Trump of staging a “political stunt” after his campaign staff got into an altercation with a cemetery employee who tried to stop them from filming and photographing a wreath-laying ceremony in Section 60 — the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“It is not a place for politics,” Harris said in lengthy a statement posted on social media Saturday afternoon.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” she continued.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members “suckers” and ‘losers’ and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients,” Harris claimed. Trump has long denied making the “suckers” and “losers” comments cited in a 2020 story in The Atlantic.
The US Army claimed Trump campaign staff members “ abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery official who tried to prevent staffers from capturing the former president participating in the ceremony on camera, according to federal law.
There is no law against snapping photographs in the national ceremony, but a cemetery spokesperson told The Post that “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.”
Section 60 holds the gravesites of the latest casualties to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, including three of the 13 US troops who were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at the Kabul International Airport in August 2021.
“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
The Gold Star families of the 13 fallen soldiers killed during the withdrawal released a statement on Wednesday denying that they had trampled on Section 60 regulations and thanked Trump for “honoring our children and their fallen brothers and sisters.”
“On the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate Bombing, the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children,” they said.
Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, one of the three fallen service members buried at the military cemetery, told The Post that it was not a campaign event and that they had personally invited Trump to attend.
The Trump campaign claimed the cemetery employee who interfered was “suffering from a mental health episode” and that there was “no physical altercation as described.”
