US Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump.
Brendan McDermid | Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday blasted former President Donald Trump for shooting at Arlington National Cemetery, accusing him of taking advantage of his visit for political purposes, which is prohibited.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred space, all for the sake of a political stunt.” Grace wrote in a lengthy post X. “This is a man who can understand nothing but service to himself.”
Half an hour later, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vanceresponded to Harris in his own social media post: “President Trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence.”
“Why don’t you get off social media and start an investigation into their needless deaths?” added Vance.
The Trump campaign echoed that line of defense on its own social media positionreplying to Harris: “You have NEVER taken responsibility for the 13 heroes killed on your watch — while bragging that you were the last person in the room.”
Last week, Trump faced heat for his Monday visit to Arlington Cemetery, during which campaign officials “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery worker who was trying to enforce federal laws that prohibit “political activities » at military cemeteries, according to a spokesman for the US military.
Trump made the trip to the cemetery to mark the three-year anniversary of the killing of 13 US service members in a bombing at Kabul airport during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he has repeatedly blamed on President Joe Biden and Grace.
While Trump met with the families of the victims, his campaign staff took various photos and videos, many of which were posted on social media platforms.
Arlington Cemetery issued a statement confirming the incident between the campaign and the cemetery staff member, which was first reported by NPR.
“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities within the Army’s National Military Cemeteries, including photographers, content creators or other persons attending for purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the cemetery said.
Trump’s campaign has repeatedly denied any physical altercation and said he had permission to have a photographer and videographer on the premises. A Trump campaign spokesman said the incident was the result of a cemetery employee having a “mental health episode.”
Trump said Friday that he only took photos at the scene because the victims’ families wanted him to.
“I stood with different people over different graves and took pictures. I didn’t want to take pictures, but I wanted to take them if they wanted to take them,” she said in a moderated conversation with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany. Justice.
The Harris campaign has attacked the controversy, blasting Trump for disrespecting US troops and pointing to several other incidents where the former president has faced backlash for allegedly disparaging comments about veterans, which he has denied.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump,” Harris wrote in her post on Saturday. “I believe that someone who cannot live up to this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.”
