Two people who work for Donald Trump’s campaign were reportedly involved in a physical altercation with an official at the Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath laying ceremony on Monday.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told NPR that the Trump campaign were made aware that only cemetery officials are allowed to take photos or videos in the area where recent casualties are buried, known as Section 60. Yet, Trump staffers tried to do it anyway.
When an Arlington National Cemetery official tried to stop them, two campaign staffers “verbally abused and pushed the official aside,” according to NPR.
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to take part in a wreath laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the terrorist attack that kill 13 US service members at an airport in Kabul during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In a statement to NPR, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung denied that an altercation took place.
“We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung said.
“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,” he continued.
NPR noted that the Trump campaign declined to provide the footage and that Arlington National Cemetery said it “can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement continued. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
