Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday slammed former President Donald Trump for his controversial photo-op with Gold Star families at Arlington National Cemetery, claiming it was an “insult to sacred ground.”
The Democratic presidential candidate accused Trump of staging a “political performance” after campaign staff got into an altercation with cemetery officials who tried to prevent him from filming and photographing a wreath-laying ceremony at Section 60, a burial site for military personnel killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite being invited by Gold Star families.
“This is not a political forum,” Harris said. In a lengthy statement The post was made to social media on Saturday afternoon.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected this sacred site for political stunts,” she continued.
“This is not the first time we've heard such comments from Donald Trump, who has called fallen service members 'idiots' and 'losers' and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients,” Harris argued. Trump has long denied making the “idiot” and “loser” comments quoted in the 2020 Atlantic article.
The U.S. military, under federal law, argued that Trump campaign staff “abruptly shoved away” cemetery officials who were trying to prevent them from taking camera pictures of the former president taking part in the ceremony.
While there is no law banning photography at national ceremonies, a cemetery spokesperson told The Washington Post, “federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activity on U.S. Army National Cemetery grounds, including any photographers, content creators or other individuals present in direct support of the campaigns of partisan political candidates.”
Section 60 contains the graveyards of recent casualties of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, including three of the 13 U.S. soldiers killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at Kabul International Airport in August 2021.
“Participants in the Aug. 26 ceremony and subsequent Section 60 visit were aware of federal law, Army regulations and Department of Defense policy that explicitly prohibit political activity on cemetery grounds,” an Army spokesman said in a statement Thursday.
The families of 13 Gold Star servicemen killed during the withdrawal issued a statement Wednesday denying that they had overstepped Section 60 regulations and thanking President Trump for “honoring our children and our fallen brothers and sisters.”
“On the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, the President and his team conducted themselves with the utmost respect and dignity towards all our servicemen and women, especially their beloved children,” they said.
Darin Huber, father of Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Huber, one of the three fallen soldiers buried in the military cemetery, told The Washington Post that this was not a campaign event and that he had personally invited Trump to attend.
The Trump campaign argued that the cemetery employee who disrupted the proceedings “suffered from a mental illness” and that “there was no physical confrontation as described.”
