Former President Donald Trump’s campaign staffers got into a scrap with an Arlington National Cemetery official over filming in unauthorized sections, NPR reported.
Trump was at the cemetery in Virginia on Monday for a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack on US troops as they withdrew from Afghanistan. Trump and the GOP have often used the 2021 Kabul attack — where 13 US service members were killed — to slam the Biden administration.
A source with knowledge of the matter told NPR that two Trump staffers tried to film and photograph an area where recently deceased troops were buried, called Section 60. According to NPR’s source, the Arlington cemetery’s authorities had made it known that only cemetery officials could film in that section.
The source told NPR that when the cemetery official tried to stop Trump’s staffers from entering the section, the Trump staff engaged in a verbal spat with the individual and shoved them aside.
Cemetery staff confirmed in a statement to NPR that “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 said, per NPR.
It added: “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
Trump’s staff has denied that there was a fight at the cemetery.
“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said in response to a request for comment from BI.
“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 added.
News of the incident at Arlington National Cemetery comes as the presidential race kicks into high gear. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to debate on ABC on September 10, after much back-and-forth over new mic-muting rules and which network should host the debate.
On Tuesday, Trump was also hit with a revised election interference indictment by special counsel Jack Smith.
The new indictment maintains the same four counts against Trump but removes details of alleged conduct that may now be protected by presidential immunity.
Representatives for the cemetery did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
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