The campaign of Donald Trump has blamed the Arlington National Cemetery by a physical confrontation which occurred on Monday during a visit by former President Trump.
The incident occurred when a photographer walked through the cemetery with Trump, what has generated a controversy about violations of restrictions on political activities in military cemeteries.
According to Arlington National Cemetery’s media policy, Filming and photographing is not permitted “for partisan, political, or fundraising purposes, pursuant to the Hatch Act.”
The Hatch Act is a federal law that restricts political activity of persons employed by executive agencies and those working for programs funded by federal loans and grants.
In a statement, The cemetery confirmed that an incident occurred and a report was filed.but did not provide additional information.
“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or anyone else attending for the purpose of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” The cemetery said in a statement.
“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm that an incident occurred and a report was filed.”
In addition, services and ceremonies at the Army’s National Military Cemeteries may not include partisan political activitiesaccording to the Army Public Affairs Program manual.
Military installations cannot be used by incumbents or “candidates seeking office, their staff members or their campaign representatives for political or electoral campaign events,” including public meetings or town halls, rallies, speeches, press conferences or fundraisers, the manual says.
Trump’s incident was first reported by NPR. On Monday, the former president attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
The media reported that a cemetery official attempted to prevent Trump’s staff from filming and photographing an area dedicated to soldiers who recently died in Afghanistan and Iraqknown as Section 60. The NPR source said that Trump’s staff pushed the official aside when he attempted to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering the area.
Trump’s campaign has denied that there was any physical altercation.
“The fact is that a private photographer was allowed into the premises and for some reason, an anonymous individual, who was clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheungin a statement.
After the wreath-laying ceremony, Trump walked to Section 60 with some family members of some of the 13 U.S. service members killed at the Kabul airport. That section of the ceremony was closed to the press, but Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) posted a photo with Trump and some family members giving a thumbs-up.
Trump posted a video on TikTok with footage from Monday, captioning the video “should never have happened,” referring to the Kabul attack.
Some veterans were alarmed by the incident. VoteVets, a progressive organization that works to elect veterans, shared a screenshot of the video, criticizing Trump for the incident and the video.
“And there you have it. Donald Trump is using images and photographs his campaign took at Arlington National Cemetery for political purposes, against the rules and laws that govern this hallowed ground,” VoteVets said.
“This whole episode is disgusting and an affront to all those hundreds of thousands of families who never agreed to allow their deceased loved ones to be dragged into politics,” VoteVets added.