A couple of officials with former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign were recently accused of verbally abusing and shoving an Arlington National Cemetery official during an altercation on Monday via Mediaite.
As per NPR, they cited a source “with knowledge of the incident,” the two unnamed campaign officials allegedly got into a verbal and physical altercation with the cemetery official after the official attempted to stop them from “filming and photographing in a section where recent US casualties are buried,” known as Section 60.
It has been noted that the cemetery official tried to prevent the Trump staffers from entering Section 60, the staffers allegedly “verbally abused and pushed the official aside.”
The incident occurred while Trump was participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the anniversary of the 2021 Kabul airport terrorist attack. This attack, which took place during the controversial withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the Biden administration, resulted in the deaths of 182 people, including 13 US military personnel.
In a statement to NPR, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung rejected the assertion that an altercation had taken place and blamed the incident on an individual “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”
“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” said Cheung in the statement. “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.”
From NPR’s @QuilLawrence: Arlington National Cemetery officials say Trump campaign staff verbally abused and pushed aside cemetery official who objected to filming and photography at gravesites
More below and to follow on NPR pic.twitter.com/xQN2JEbCnG
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) August 27, 2024
