Donald Trump Suggests Parents of Fallen Servicemembers Could Have Been at Fault for Arlington National Cemetery Drama
Donald Trump attempted to shift the blame after his team was called out for breaking Arlington National Cemetery rules by filming campaign material at the historic site.
During a Thursday, August 29, interview, NBC News' Dasha Burns asked the 78-year-old former president if he believed his staffers should have "put out those videos and photos" taken at Section 60 of the cemetery while he was there participating in an event honoring fallen servicemembers.
"Well, we have a lot of people, you know, we have people, TikTok people, you know, we’re leading the internet," he boasted as he gave his rambling reply. "That was the other thing. We’re so far above her on the internet."
"I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it," he continued. "And it could have been them. It could have been the parents," he noted, appearing to blame the families of the dead servicemembers who invited him to the event.
After Burns assured him that it was his own campaign's TikTok that shared the videos in question, Trump doubled down on not knowing anything about the situation.
"All I [did] is I stood there and I said, if you’d like to have a picture, we can have a picture if somebody did," he added. "If this was a set up by the people in the administration that, oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, that looks so bad for us..."
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Following the interview, MSNBC Pentagon correspondent Courtney Kube clarified Arlington National Cemetery — where thousands of fallen military members have been laid to rest — has rules that are "very clear" regarding this type of situation.
"You are not allowed to have videographers or photographers at Section 60 collecting any kind of images," Kube confirmed. "But not just that you cannot, anything that you, that anyone does there, whether it’s the staff or former President Trump, none of the video or content that they collect is allowed to then be used in the capacity of his campaign, though that’s also very clearly written into the rules."
The U.S. Army also released a statement condemning Trump's presidential campaign for their actions.
"Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations, and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside."
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The cemetery worker involved in the alleged altercation declined to press charges.