A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Incidentally, their response to this was in the NYT:
An official with the cemetery tried to “physically block” members of Mr. Trump’s team, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement. Mr. Cheung added that the cemetery official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” and that the campaign was prepared to release footage of the confrontation to support its account of the clash. The campaign did not provide that footage after several requests.
Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, added in a separate statement that the cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”
https://archive.is/REbXH#selection-901.0-905.206
Blaming mental illness on someone stopping them from exploiting recently dead service members for a political campaign is… pretty weird.
What an absolute piece of shit.
They were:
- Warned ahead of time they couldn’t film there
- Tried to do it anyway.
- Got indignant when they were forced to follow the rules like a bunch of fucking children.
- Then claim the service member had “mental health issues” like that somehow makes them not in the right, assuming it’s even true (which it almost certainly isn’t).
- Claim they’re going to release footage of the incident, but then never do (likely because it’s exactly as bad as you’d think).
Our dead servicemen and women are not your fucking pawn piece for your shit stain campaign, asshole.
I look forward to seeing Kamala curb stomp his sorry ass in the general election.
Also interesting how they claim to have footage of the incident proving their ‘innocence’ from an area where they’re not allowed to be filming. Hmmm.
MAGA folks claim to have lots of things and never deliver because their stupid cult following doesn’t actually care about whether something they want to believe is factual.
They just want to be angry.
Oh I’m all too familiar with that after all the election court cases with “evidence of election fraud that’ll be released at a later date,” the Fox News/Hunter Biden laptop, and the years of QAnon conspiracy theories where “evidence of the evil Denocrats engaging in XYZ is weeks away from being released!”
In this case though, their alleged proof of no wrongdoing is itself an admission that they were wrong in the first place.
That’s what there are federal laws against it. The DOJ needs to indict him for this
So someone who was clearly doing there job was getting very frustrated when, probably for the first time ever, they don’t listen or follow the rules? Guy lashes out because they are doing whatever they want and he is the one with mental health issues? I really wish the news stopped taking such a neutral stance on this crap and actually state who the problem is.
A guard would have yelled and pointed a gun at you. Lucky it wasn’t one of them.
Pathetic action and an even more pathetic excuse
Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, added in a separate statement that the cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”
How could they resist putting a [sic] in there?
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,”
Having a photo OP and givinhg a thumbs up and a smile does not fall under the definition of solemn to me.
Good thing Trump didn’t try to rush the tomb of the unknown soldier for a photo-op - the honor guard actually has orders to shoot people being disrespectful.
Good thing?