Doina Ciacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Saturday for visiting a soldier’s grave at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery that was later utilized in a marketing campaign video clip.
“It is a solemn place; a spot the place we collect to honor American heroes who’ve made the final word sacrifice for this nation. This isn’t a political place,” Harris wrote within the X submit.
The vice chairman’s feedback got here 5 days after Trump participated in a ceremony Monday to put flowers to the 13 service members who died throughout the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He additionally visited Part 60 of the Virginia Cemetery, thought-about a sacred web site by the army. Federal legislation and Pentagon coverage don’t enable political exercise within the space, however Trump’s marketing campaign launched a TikTok video of Trump and Democrat Harris within the tight race for the White Home. Cemetery fragment.
Trump’s go to drew criticism from some veterans and family of troopers. The U.S. Military on Friday defended a cemetery worker who was pushed apart on the sixtieth Precinct, saying she acted professionally and was unfairly focused.
“Let me be clear: the previous president disrespected sacred floor and this was all for a political stunt,” Harris wrote.
Trump stated in a speech in Pennsylvania on Friday that the households of service members killed in Afghanistan have requested him to go to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
“I acquired there and we had a ceremony,” Trump stated. Trump stated the household requested him if they may go to the grave, after which they requested for a photograph. “I stated, ‘In fact.’ So I took photos in entrance of the grave,” he stated.
Trump launched a concerted counterattack on Saturday, posting movies on his “Fact Society” account exhibiting family of not less than seven of the 13 folks killed within the Afghan withdrawal defending his actions on the cemetery. Lots of them addressed Harris immediately and questioned her help for army households.
“Vice President Harris, why did not you specific your condolences in particular person? Why did we by no means hear from you?” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Sgt. Nicole Gee, one of many victims of the 2021 withdrawal, requested in a video .
Trump’s vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance (NASDAQ: ) and press secretary Carolyn Leavitt individually responded to Harris’ submit on Saturday, which referenced the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan and accused Harris of being liable for deaths there. Troopers are insensitive.
Trump used Monday’s third anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to attempt to blame his vice chairman for the chaotic withdrawal below President Joe Biden.
Harris, 59, turned the Democratic nominee within the Nov. 5 presidential election after Biden, 81, withdrew from the race in July.
The vice chairman’s response to Trump’s cemetery go to might present clues about how she handles the topic throughout the Sept. 10 debate. She cited Trump’s historical past of insulting veterans.
“That is nothing new for Donald Trump. It is a man who calls our fallen service members ‘fools’ and ‘losers’ and belittles Medal of Honor recipients,” she wrote.
Trump has stated the late senator and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain was not a warfare hero, despite the fact that he was shot down whereas serving as a Navy pilot and spent years as a prisoner of warfare in North Vietnam.
Trump has known as fallen World Battle I veterans “fools” and “losers,” in line with his former White Home chief of workers, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly. Trump continues to dispute the report.
It is unclear whether or not such incidents would affect veterans’ votes. An April report from the Pew Analysis Middle discovered that veterans help Republicans.
