A physical confrontation reportedly took place Monday at Arlington National Cemetery during former President Trump’s wreath-laying visit to mark the anniversary of a fatal suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
Both Arlington National Cemetery officials and the Trump campaign blamed the other for what a National Public Radio report described as “a verbal and physical altercation.”
Citing “a source with knowledge of the incident,” NPR reported Tuesday evening that Trump staffers tried to take photos and footage in Section 60, where such acts are only permitted for cemetery staff members.
A cemetery official tried to stop them and “campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside,” NPR reported.
Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement to NPR that “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.”
Cemetery officials “can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed,” the statement said.
The Trump campaign had a different account, saying it had the needed permission to take photographs.
“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,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told NPR.
He denied a physical altercation took place and said “we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”
The Monday ceremony marked the third anniversary of the chaotic final withdrawal from Afghanistan by U.S. forces at Kabul airport, which was punctuated by an Islamic State attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians.
Mr. Trump laid a wreath at the ceremony, which was attended by neither President Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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