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THE TRUMP SAGA SAD ....................... Times Radio: Fight at Arlington cemetery shows Trump just can't get anything right in US election GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. Among those with him are Tyler Vargas-Andrews and Kelsee Lainhart, two Marines who were wounded in the August 2021 suicide bombing in Kabul. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/28/trump-arlington-cemetery-section-60/ Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Trump has no shame! Peter Burgess
How a Trump visit sparked turmoil at America’s most sacred cemetery Army officials hoped clear rules would avoid a damaging public spat with Trump. He gave them one anyway. Written by Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Dan Lamothe August 28, 2024 at 7:04 p.m. EDT Earlier this month, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign contacted military officials about visiting Arlington National Cemetery to mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Afghanistan. Federal law prohibits election-related activities at military cemeteries, and Arlington is the most prestigious and sacred of all. Pentagon officials were deeply concerned about the former president turning the visit into a campaign stop, but they also didn’t want to block him from coming, according to Defense Department officials and internal messages reviewed by The Washington Post. Officials said they wanted to respect the wishes of grieving family members who wanted Trump there, but at the same time were wary of Trump’s record of politicizing the military. So they laid out ground rules they hoped would wall off politics from the final resting place of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. Instead, they got sucked into exactly the kind of crisis they were hoping to avoid. A cemetery employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident. A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee, leaving her shocked. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to the first report of the altercation, from NPR on Tuesday, by accusing, without evidence, the employee of “suffering from a mental health episode.” Defense officials said that the employee was trying to do her job and that the claim of a mental health episode was false. On Wednesday Cheung said the employee “initiated physical contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary.” Cheung also said the campaign would release footage to support his claim but has not. The campaign did, however, post a TikTok of the event on Wednesday — exactly what military officials tried to prevent. The use of the footage marked a flagrant violation of the law against partisan actions at military cemeteries, defense officials said. The visit comes as Trump struggles to regain his footing in a race altered by Vice President Kamala Harris’s replacement of President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. He often portrays himself as a champion of the military, but Democrats point to his public and private remarks denigrating service members. “I just haven’t seen anything this disgusting,” said Paul Eaton, a retired Army general and adviser to the liberal group VoteVets whose father’s remains are interred at Arlington. “It is completely inappropriate to do any kind of political activity on a federal installation, and it is immoral in my terms to conduct any kind of self-serving activity on a cemetery with the graves of our fallen.” Defense officials were concerned about the event Monday because Republicans have frequently used the bombing, a low point of the Biden administration, as a political cudgel. In advance of the event, cemetery officials told Trump’s team that he could come in his personal capacity and bring personal aides, but not campaign staff. Campaign advisers went anyway. No hats, signs or banners were allowed, according to military officials. No speeches. Reporters and photographers could follow Trump for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, but not to the 14-acre plot where veterans from recent wars are buried, known as Section 60. The media was kept away, unable to see the altercation — or anything else, for that matter — during that part of his visit. Trump stands alongside Misty Fuoco, whose sister, Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, was killed in the August 2021 suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. troops. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) The first part went according to plan. With full media coverage, Trump and two Marines injured in the bombing, Tyler Vargas-Andrews and Kelsee Lainhart, laid a wreath at the tomb, a monument dedicated to deceased U.S. troops whose remains have not been identified or recovered. The press then returned to a holding area, specifically instructed that reporters and cameras would not accompany Trump and bereaved families to Section 60. But Trump officials said they did not view the campaign’s own photographer and videographer as subject to the same restrictions, so they continued on to Section 60. Their arrival there prompted the standoff with the cemetery employee over the rules. The identity of the Trump aide involved was not known Wednesday. The incident has raised concerns about the safety of Arlington staff members, the senior defense official said, with vitriol aimed at them initially on Monday by liberals, after the news coverage of Trump at the cemetery was published. That has given way to language from conservatives that also is “concerning.” “If the campaign feels the need to defend their team’s actions — which include bullying and physically pushing out of the way a longtime public servant and member of the team at Arlington working to protect the sanctity of the sacred spaces — then that’s on them,” one defense official said. “The rules were made clear to participants, and these two chose to disregard those rules. End of story.” Fight at Arlington cemetery shows 'Trump just can't get anything right' in US election Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7YnyHYSNh0 Fight at Arlington cemetery shows 'Trump just can't get anything right' in US election Times Radio 939K subscribers Aug 28, 2024 Trump's staff have admitted to an 'scuffle' with Arlington National Cemetery staff during Trump's visit on Monday David Charter US assistant editor for the times 📻 Listen to Times Radio - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio 📍 Subscribe to our channel - / @listentotimesradio 🗞 Subscribe to The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/subscribe/... 📲 Get the free Times Radio app https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio/how-... 0:00 what's emerged is that there was some kind of altercation between the Trump people and a member of the Arlington staff about filming in a restricted area so there's a very sensitive part of Arlington called section 60 which is where recently deceased service members are buried and that's not to be used for political purposes uh in uh any any filming or performance or uh event and of course the Trump team were doing that and and a member of Arlington staff seems to have tried to intervene and got into some sort of tussle Arlington isn't saying very much about it it's only emerged through an NPR report that's a national public radio here and the Trump team has said well there was uh one person who seemed to be mentally ill who was trying to um intervene in in our in our event when we were invited there John let's go to America now Donald Trump May yet face prosecution despite a wide ranging immunity ruling by the 1:00 Supreme Court the former president's been hit with a new indictment for allegedly seeking to subvert the 2020 election uh we can talk to David Charter who is the US assistant editor for the Times uh David I'm sure an awful lot of people listening to that introduction there will think haven't I heard this before where are we at with this story today what's new about this right so what had to happen uh was that the this astonishing Supreme Court ruling this very wide wi ranging decision they made on immunity for American Presidents uh had to be uh taken account of by the uh by the uh prosecutor in in the case Jack Smith the special counsel um because of course Trump's uh side uh were seeking to have all the cases against him thrown out saying that uh he's allowed to carry out actions such as uh leaning on his justice 2:00 department uh to carry out investigations into the election and to uh try and uh suggest to uh the the the the swing states that uh there was such a lot of fraud that they should have uh a slate of electors chosen to represent Trump rather than Biden who was who was the winner and the these go to the heart of the case so what Jack Smith has tried to do in this new indictment that's been published this week uh is to make his charge is stick basically he's seen his case uh his federal case for Trump retaining classified documents thrown out by a court and he doesn't want this one thrown out as well uh so he slimmed down the indictment uh quite a lot uh he's taken out all of the charges uh all of the allegations I should say relating uh to Trump's pressure on the Department of Justice to intervene uh and to lean on the states and to carry out investigations all of that's been 3:00 removed and what remains is really allegations against uh Trump that emphasizing it as a candidate rather than as acting as the president uh Jack Smith is saying he was acting as a candidate seeking to overturn the election that he lost and that's important because uh as we know uh this US Supreme Court ruling gave the presumption of immunity uh for all the core actions of a president while still in office which Trump was you know come uh January the 6th so that's the important thing that we should hang on to then the fact that uh the presidential privilege is being challenged and therefore the charges might stick because this blanket of immunity would have been removed yeah the the presidential privilege um was gave the presumption of immunity for all core actions no G sorry it g it gave it gave absolute immunity for all the core actions of a president 4:01 and he gave the presumption of immunity for all the other actions that a president takes while he's president um and so Jack Smith has to get round this so as I say he's emphasizing that Trump was acting as a candidate and when he's talking about his pressure on Mike Pence the vice president to throw out the results from the swing states that Biden won which was the core of what was happening on January the 6th 2021 he's emphasizing that Mike Mike Pence in his role as running mate rather than his role as vice president uh and the indictment has been totally redrawn to emphasiz uh the the role of people who are not in government so the the the senior Justice official who was helping Trump put pressure on States uh all that his role has been removed from the indictment he was down as a co-conspirator and instead uh it's uh relying on the efforts of people who were out in the states who were if you 5:02 if you know the details of the case they were try they were putting together a whole slate uh of Republicans to represent that state in the formal vote counting rather than putting together a slate of Democrats to represent uh Biden and so it's that part of the indictment that is staying and now of course it's up to a judge to assess uh whether Trump can be um tried convicted uh based on uh his role as candidate even though he was still president it's a very difficult Balancing Act and it's a very it's going to it's we're in uncharted waters but I think as you were suggesting at the top uh the upshot of it all is it's so complicated uh that we're just not going to see this in court before the election yeah uh which is which was the original um idea I think was to get it out of the way before the election now it's we're 6:00 of course we're into what uh less than 80 days before the election it's just not going to happen right and in the mean time I mean obviously Trump is out there uh doing his stuff he's been on a visit to Arlington hasn't he and and actually hasn't that gone a little bit wrong today David so yes much was made of this by the Trump campaign because he was invited to Arlington by the families of the 13 service members who were killed in Afghanistan during the withdrawal that was on the anniversary on Mondays what's emerged is that there was some kind of altercation between the Trump people and a member of the Arlington staff about filming in a restricted area so there's a very sensitive part of Arlington called section 60 which is where recently deceased service members are buried and that's not to be used for political purposes uh in uh any any filming or performance or uh event and of course 7:01 the Trump team were doing that and and a member of Arlington staff seems to have tried to intervene and got into some sort of tussle Arlington isn't saying very much about it it's only emerged through an NPR report that's a national public radio here and the Trump team has said well there was uh one person who seemed to be mentally ill who was trying to um intervene in our in our event when we were invited there uh so at the moment it's he said said he said sort of situation uh but there does seem to been some sort of kafuffle and it just seems that at the moment we're in a phase where Trump just can't get anything right in this election since kamla Harris emerged he's been trying any which way to land a blow and of course this was to be weaponized if you like uh this Afghanistan withdrawal anniversary to try and remind people that the Biden Harris administration had made a a big old mess of withdrawing from Afghanistan 8:01 to try and score political points but again it's in danger of being overshadowed and misfiring and of course it would just show the most Dreadful lack of respect though David were it to be ascertained for sure that Trump's team have been trampling over such a place of grief uh and a place in America's heart uh he's also been talking hasn't he with the us talk show host Dr Phil about his own place in not just this world but in all worlds uh should we hear a little bit of the former president thanking divine intervention for his luck it has to be God I mean how can you say it's luck when it's you know 20 million to one okay I mean it's just not possible that I was in that position it's the only position where that bullet could have missed and you believe in God I Do I Do You Believe God's hand was in this that 9:00 day I believe so yeah I do and you talk about the country you believe you have more to do you weren't done you were spared for a reason well God believes that I guess David what's the reaction being to that yes um well interestingly um it's is the first time I've heard Trump saying that God believes in him but the the the reaction from the Harris campaign has been limited to other factual claims in that do Phil interview it's quite intriguing e oh you couldn't make it up

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