Ceremonies honoring America’s war dead and other heroes are common, and politicians often participate, so why is Trump’s visit to Arlington last week stirring controversy?
For starters, federal law prohibits using national cemeteries for political purposes. In addition, Arlington prohibits photography in Section 60, where this event occurred. The Army says the rules were broken in this case.
Other politicians have broken the rules, too. But they did so inadvertently, and backed off, instead of defying the rules (see story here). The Trump campaign not only is defending its actions, but engaged in shabby treatment of a cemetery worker who was trying to do her job (see story here).
We’re in an election season, and there are many reasons to believe this event was staged to help Trump’s campaign. I’ll go through some of those reasons below.
- The only Gold Star families who participated are Trump supporters who have been outspoken in blaming Biden for the Kabul airport terror bombing.
- The event appears to have been designed to amplify these families’ grievances against the Biden-Harris administration.
- One Kabul airport Gold Star family objected to their loved one’s grave being in Trump’s photo-op (see story here), but the Trump campaign and participating families have ignored or brushed aside their concern.
- As further evidence of the participating families’ partisan motives, they either denied or didn’t mention the cemetery employee incident.
- Trump politicized the event by using it to criticize the Biden-Harris administration (watch video embedded in article here).
- The videos and photos of the event are now being used by Trump as campaign material.
- Given Trump’s history of disparaging veterans, it’s not credible his motives this time are anything other than politically self-serving.
- Criticism from the veterans’ community (see, e.g., story here) is further evidence the event is widely perceived as politically motivated.
The New York Times reported that, in an apparent attempt to defuse political characterization of the event, “The Trump campaign and some family members of the troops killed at Abbey Gate have also suggested that Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden had been invited to the Arlington ceremony along with Mr. Trump” (see story here).
But the White House and Harris campaign both say that isn’t true, and said they weren’t invited (see story here). Why would they be, when those staging the event blame them for the Kabul terror bombing? That claim makes no sense at all. As this MSN story noted,
“Trump negotiated with Taliban leaders about the withdrawal he continues to blame Biden for, excluding the Afghan army from discussions. He also ordered the reduction in U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan that by January 2021 dwindled down to 2,500 from 13,000, while shutting down every airbase in the country but one. The Biden administration’s chaotic and deadly withdrawal process was following the Trump administration’s pre-negotiated commitment and timeline. A 2022 review by a government-appointed special investigator found that decisions made by both Trump and Biden were major factors in the Afghanistan military’s swift collapse and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover.”
It follows that putting all the blame on Biden, and none on Trump, is non-objective, non-factual partisan propaganda.
The Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 Americans and 170 Afghans was a terrorist act, and as such, couldn’t have been predicted or prevented. Terrorists, not politicians, killed those 183 people. But if those families blame Biden, why aren’t they also blaming the military, who conducted the operation? Have those families ever blamed George W. Bush, a Republican, for the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks? Or do they blame politicians for terror attacks only when the politicians are Democrats?
While we all should join hands to honor our war dead, and help the families who lost loved ones in the Kabul airport attack in any fashion we can, these families’ Harris-bashing in the midst of this election campaign smacks strongly of partisan bias, and lacks credibility. The Army is right to characterize this as a political campaign event that violated federal law and Arlington’s rules. For further discussion, read the Politico article here.
Update: After a judge ordered it released, the Army’s report of the incident confirmed a Trump campaign staffer physically shoved an Arlington Cemetery civilian employee (read story here).