Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery
Wait wait wait. So the Trump campaign plans a fake photo op at Arlington to make Harris look bad. Gets told not to take photos. Does it anyway and accosts a guard who is scared to ID herself for fear of Trump supporters. Gives a thumbs up at a gravesite. Gets caught up in all this shit and blames everyone else. And this is Harris fault for playing politics?
— Fake photo op? Here’s a quote - "In keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there, we invited President Trump," he said. "We are the ones that asked for the video and the pictures to be taken at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier." If family members asked for this, I’m going with that.
I certainly respect their opinions, but that doesn't change the fact that Trump should not have done what he did. It is not the place for a campaign photo op. Both common decency and federal law prohibit it. His aides should not have pushed the cemetery employee aside when she tried to enforce the rules. (She did not press charges because she feared retaliation by Trump supporters.) The Trump campaign and Fox news should not have pretended this was some sort of official event that he went to to honor the fallen and Harris did not. And if he really felt solemn empathy for the fallen and their families, he wouldn't have smiled and given a thumbs up.
The family members don't set the rules. The rules are in place to protect all gold star families from having the cemetary and their loved ones involved in political games.
Just to be clear, the families say they invited Trump and it wasn’t a fake photo op or a political stunt. But Dems on a political message board still say it was? Haven’t these families earned the right to speak and be believed?
Absolutely they have the right to speak and be believed. No one is questioning that. But do they have the right to violate the rules of the cemetery? You seem to keep ignoring that part of it. And what about the relatives who did not give the Trump permission to include their son's grave in his campaign video? Do they have a right to privacy?
Does the family set the cemetery rules? No. Did Trump have permission from the cemetery to take the pic and video? No. Does the family speak for all the other families that have loved ones buried in Section 60 that may have been in the pictures and/or video? Again, no. Did Trump have permission from these families? Also, again, no. What Trump did was wrong. Imagine you have a loved one buried in Section 60 and you see a picture of his/her grave, Trump and some random family standing over it, thumbs up and smiling. And you had no idea Trump was going to be there! How would you feel? This is why there are parts of the cemetery off limits for pics and videos. And any the Cemetery worker told Team Trump pics were not allowed in the restricted area. Trump pushed his way through anyway. It's indefensible.
The hits just keeping coming... she really stepped in it here. Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery Gold Star families who lost loved ones in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal blasted Vice President Kamala Harris over her attack on former President Trump for paying his respects at Arlington National Cemetery last week. Harris accused Trump of playing politics with the visit, but in a series of short videos, eight families said they had invited Trump, and bitterly blasted the Biden-Harris administration over the disastrous pullout that left 13 U.S. service members dead three years ago. The messages, each featuring different parents of service members killed by ISIS-K terrorists amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021, were posted on former President Trump's Instagram account. The Gold Star family members maintained that they had asked Trump for photographs, as opposed to Trump taking pictures to advance his campaign. In one video, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz called Harris' post "heinous, vile and disgusting." "Why did we want Trump there? It wasn't to help his political campaign," Mark Schmitz said in the video. "We wanted a leader. That explains why you and Joe didn't get a call." Darren Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, said that Harris lacks "empathy and basic understanding" about Monday's event, and stressed that Trump's appearance was respectful.
Yea. Another brilliant post. Trump illegally holds campaign event over the dead bodies of soldiers giving us the iconic thumbs up post and …. Harris is playing politics. Good one
Good article from a vet. Reminder that a family and especially trump don’t speak for everyone with family and friends in Arlington. “It’s not until much later, among the regular people at the office, that you realize how unlikely it is that anyone around you would ever grab three guys and come running if you were pinned down or out of ammo. But I have friends who are still in their 20s. Friends who should be in their 40s. Some of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. That is what makes Arlington a special place. And for those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum. It is the most sacred plot among more than 600 hallowed acres. When I lived in Northern Virginia during Barack Obama’s administration, I avoided Section 60 studiously. It was too much, and still too close… And that is why Donald Trump’s recent behavior is so repulsive….week that he may have broken federal laws against politicizing the burial ground to do it. Trump’s staff also shoved aside a cemetery official trying to stop them. He even posed for a photograph over a U.S. Marine’s gravesite, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The moment was jaw-droppingly crass and vulgar,….. It defiled sacred ground” Opinion | I’m a combat veteran. Here’s why Trump’s Arlington stunt was so insulting.
Politicians have occasionally used the cemetery for political purposes before. John McCain's campaign included a two-second clip of him walking through it in a campaign video. It was a older, personal clip that was used, not one shot for the campaign. When the Army told McCain it violated regulations and it shouldn't have been used, the clip was deleted. With Trump, however, being Trump ... it's been different. He and his staff were told it was against regulations, but they pushed the woman staffer aside, shot their photos and videos and published them. They insulted the woman and have continued to double down. The family of a Green Beret objected to his grave being in the video. Too bad. It's still visible in the Trump video. Others Have Politicized Arlington, but Trump’s Approach Has No Precedent
