Harris says Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ at US military cemetery where employee was pushed
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US presidential candidate Donald Trump (centre) posing at the grave of one of 13 US marines killed in Afghanistan. He was with the marine’s family.
PHOTO: STAVRIDISJ/X
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WASHINGTON – US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said on Aug 31 that her Republican rival Donald Trump “disrespected sacred ground” at a US military cemetery, after reports that his campaign team pushed a staff member during a politicised visit.
Trump’s cemetery visit – intended to provide a campaign boost ahead of November’s election – has instead mushroomed into a public dispute between the former US president and the military.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Vice-President Harris said of the Aug 26 incident at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, where Trump was accompanying relatives of US service members killed in Afghanistan.
“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honoured, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” Ms Harris wrote on X.
On Aug 29, the US Army confirmed that a cemetery staff member had been pushed aside
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign team has gone on the offensive by describing the employee as a “despicable individual” and claiming she was suffering a mental health episode.
But the military said the staff member had “acted with professionalism” and it condemned the incident as “unfortunate”.
Trump spoke at length at a rally on the night of Aug 30 about the cemetery incident and Afghanistan, and said it was families of fallen troops who asked to have their picture taken with him.
“I said, ‘Absolutely’. I wasn’t doing it for – I don’t need publicity, I get a lot of publicity. I would like to get a lot less publicity,” he said in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Trump blamed the White House for the criticism he is drawing.
“Joe Biden killed those young people because he was incompetent. And then they tell me that I used their graves for public relations purposes. And I didn’t. And I’ll tell you what, it was a disgrace,” he said.
Trump has made criticism of US President Joe Biden’s handling of the retreat from Afghanistan a keynote of his campaign, arguing that he would have managed it better.
He visited the cemetery with families of some of the 13 service members killed in a 2021 bombing in Kabul during the last hours of the US withdrawal. After the visit to the Arlington cemetery, Trump’s campaign posted a photo of the former president standing with the relatives and giving a thumbs-up gesture.
The uproar over the incident is the latest in a long line of controversies over Trump’s relationship with the military.
While often touting his support for the armed forces, he privately mocked the war dead while he was president and did not want to be seen near military amputees, according to his former chief of staff. AFP
