WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – A Democratic congressman is calling on Arlington National Cemetery to release all information about an incident that happened during former president Donald Trump’s visit Monday.Â
Trump joined a wreath laying ceremony to honor the 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing during the Afghanistan War withdrawal three years ago.
Video Trump posted to his TikTok shows him in the highly restricted area called Section 60, dedicated to recently fallen servicemembers. The former president is heard comparing his record to the Biden administration.
“We didn’t lose one person in 18 months,” Trump said in a voiceover. “And then they took over that disaster.”
The cemetery said in a statement, “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. Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, “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.”
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, (R-Ohio.), addressed the incident on the campaign trail Wednesday.
“There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there,” Vance said. “It is amazing to me that you have apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody, and the media has turned this into a national news story.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly, (D-Va.), wants the cemetery to release a full account of what happened, saying in a statement, “It’s sad but all too expected that Donald Trump would desecrate this hallowed ground and put campaign politics ahead of honoring our heroes.”
A cemetery spokesperson did not reveal specifics of the incident and said to protect the identity of the person involved, no further information is being released at this time.
