As former president Donald Trump enjoyed a campaign photo op at Arlington National Cemetary—thumbs up!—two members of his team allegedly verbally abused and shoved a cemetery official who stopped them filming an area with fresh graves.
A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
The Trump campaign at first threatened to release video proving that claims were defamatory and that the official was "clearly suffering from a mental health episode," as Trump spokesman Steven Cheung put it, but "declined to make that footage immediately available" when NPR asked to see it.
From a formal statement from Arlington National Cemetery:
"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," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."
