Donald Trump's campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery to honour service members, a defense official said.

Donald Trump’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week to honour service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

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“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 cemetery officials’ statement said. “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.”

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      20·
      3 months ago

      From the link:

      It came a day after NPR reported, citing a source with knowledge of the incident, that two Trump campaign staff members “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

      Cemetery staff tried to stop them from filming/taking photographs in a restricted section of cemetery and and Trump’s people physically and verbally abused them for doing their job.

      Even worse, in my opinion, is Trump spokesman Steven Cheung’s response.

      “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 said.

      How dare that peon try to enforce the rules? Didn’t they know that Trump is beyond all mortal regulations? Clearly the peon was mentally ill at the time.

      • confused_code_monkey@lemm.ee
        14·
        3 months ago

        clearly suffering from a mental health episode

        It’s horrifying that Trump’s campaign manager would casually make this significant health claim on an official that dared to do his job rather than bow to Trump’s will. Just horrifying.

    • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 months ago

      To add to what the guy below said:

      According to Arlington National Cemetery’s media policy, filming and photographing is not authorized “for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act.”