Outside the Beltway

Trump Claims Arlington Photo-Op was a “Set-up”

I guess he is unaware of the concept of a “self-own”?

Steven L. Taylor
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Via Yahoo News: Trump claims his Arlington National Cemetery photo-op controversy “was a setup by the people in the administration.”

“This was a setup by the people in the [Biden-Harris] administration that, oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, that looks so bad for us,” the Republican presidential candidate said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday night.

[…]

Trump: “I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it. And it could have been them. It could have been the parents. It could have been somebody.”

Reporter: “It was your campaign’s TikTok, though, that put out the video.”

Trump: “I really don’t know anything about it. All I do is, I stood there and I said, if you’d like to have a picture, we can have a picture.”

I mean, who are you going to believe, Trump or your lyin’ eyes?

(Video of the interview at the link).

And I know it is a game we are tired of, but I can’t help but imagine the press coverage if the Harris campaign had pulled this stunt (not to mention the caterwauling that would have emerged from the Trump folks).

On the one hand, I would agree he is getting heat for this event. But on the other, I think Harris would have gotten exponentially more. Indeed, it seems that Harris is getting almost as much coverage over her views on fracking as Trump is on this, dare I say, deplorable behavior.

I know it is what it is. But of the things it is, it is exhausting. It is also shocking, on many levels, that this man has a significant chance of being elected president in November.

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54 responses to “Trump Claims Arlington Photo-Op was a “Set-up””

  1. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    This is a big enough screw up that IF he was telling the truth (and yes, even I am laughing having typed that), it would be cause for a campaign shake-up. Someone would be either getting fired or demoted, Trump would ISSUE AN APOLOGY, and the video/campaign ad would never have seen the light of day.

    So, of course, he’s LYING. AGAIN.

    Day ending in “y.”

    My .02 on what likely happened: He was invited by the family, and either he or someone on the campaign decided that they’d do a commercial because of the imagery. Someone on the campaign should have known that this was not allowable, and the response was “let them try and stop us.”

    30
  2. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Jen: I suspect your take is correct.

    Throw in the authoritarian politics of it all: shoving people, flaunting the law, and just in general doing whatever they want.

    14
  3. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    @Jen:

    Someone on the campaign should have known that this was not allowable, and the response was “let them try and stop us.”

    I suspect this is what happened as well. And why not?

    With each new scandalous/deplorable action from Trump, there is that moment of “surely this will be the thing” that turns people away from Trump and stops the press from normalizing his abnormality. Lesser scandals have been the ruin of greater leaders always. But, nope, “Trump being Trump” is bullet-proof.

    Simply put, the Trump campaign knows that their deplorability is baked in with the press, while their defiance of norms and flouting of the rule of law is what gets the Trumpists all lathered up. TFG’s campaign can keeping crossing the line knowing the line will be moved a little further toward total depravity every time.

    What a massive advantage for Trump (all while he continues to whine about the unfairness to him).

    14
  4. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Scott F.:

    What a massive advantage for Trump

    And the fact that he is literally shameless and flatly does not care about social norms of behavior.

    I think that it is his biggest advantage. Further, he isn’t embarrassed by lying, even a little bit.

    10
  5. Not the IT Dept. Avatar
    Not the IT Dept.

    As amazing as it is, I’m inclined to think that the list of those most responsible for this cluster*bleep* does not start with Trump personally. Aside from the inappropriate grin and thumb’s up (which tends to be his signature gesture when he sees a photographer) he seems to have conducted himself reasonably well.

    But he has a campaign team who are supposed to be on top of this kind of event management and they screwed up all the way down the pipe. The press secretary made it worse by making it personal against the Arlington official who tried to stop them. Whoever got into the shoving match is another non-professional. These are the people who should be canned immediately. And it has nothing to do with policy or left-right disagreement – we’re talking straight competence here.

    And where Trump is blameworthy is in not firing or at the very least shuffling them around so this doesn’t happen again. If he can’t understand the importance of respecting Arlington’s rules (and he can’t, no question), he should be able to understand that a campaign event designed to restore somewhat good relations with the military went totally sideways on him and makes him look even worse. And he should take steps accordingly. But he won’t because it’s circle-the-wagons time again, and the reality is he has no one else who’ll work for him.

    13
  6. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    I think that it is his biggest advantage. Further, he isn’t embarrassed by lying, even a little bit.

    This is no doubt true, but I’ve stopped caring about who Trump is. He’s not going to change come hell or high water. That is truly baked in.

    Nevertheless, I still contend that some significant number of his supporters and enablers ARE embarrassed by HIS lying and shamelessness and that it’s possible to push them toward disassociating with him. That is the project over the coming weeks. It’s not insisting that Trump change, but insisting that his voters confront that his immutable horridness is what they choosing to validate with their votes.

    9
  7. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    I am entirely devoid of religion or spirituality or superstition. But Jesus Christ, I could not make myself stand on the grave of a person who died wearing our country’s uniform. Let alone film an ad. Let alone give a grinning thumbs-up. What a lout.

    Remember when Republicans used to pretend to care about character?

    20
  8. joe Avatar
    joe

    This was a private event by the families. They invited Trump. They wanted a photographer there. Everything else is just another sociopathic dirty trick by the Dems and media. In a couple of weeks it’ll be forgotten about because you’ll have moved on to the next bit of mindless hysteria.

    1
  9. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @Scott F.:

    They may find Trump embarrassing, but they’ll still vote for him.

    3
  10. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @joe: So, the fact that the Trump campaign issued a TikTok video doesn’t matter to you at all?

    And that he is claiming all of this is a set-up, despite it all emanating from his campaign doesn’t phase you?

    Speaking as a guy who takes a lot of photographs, if I just snap a photo of some folks at a cemetery, those tend to stay on my phone or whatever.

    Also: do you not find that photo a bit gross? Thumbs up and smiling over a grave, let alone of a recently deceased member of the armed services killed in the line of duty?

    22
  11. Not the IT Dept. Avatar
    Not the IT Dept.

    @joe:

    You know, the doctor should have explained to you that you’re supposed to take your meds at the same times every day. Otherwise you might embarrass yourself by saying silly things in public.

    10
  12. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @joe:

    This was a private event by the families

    BTW: clearly, it was not a private event.

    16
  13. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @Not the IT Dept.:

    But he won’t because it’s circle-the-wagons time again, and the reality is he has no one else who’ll work for him.

    Trump always doubles down because he is a Roy Cohn acolyte so the lodestar policy is never back down, never apologize.

    The post above is a very clif notes synopsis. There were two main parts of the incident, it began with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Trump had the right to lay the wreath, but filming it was unlawful, the fact that it was campaign photographers who generated a campaign commercial demonstrates why.

    Then, Trump’s entourage went to Section 60, the sensitive area restricted to post 9/11 service deaths, where access is tightly regulated and no photographs allowed. Campaign staff are not allowed in Section 60, where the infamous “thumbs up” picture was taken.

    My impression online is that the early outrage was over the “thumbs up” picture, attention to the TikTok video came later.

    Note also the Trump campaign’s initial plan was to portray the wreath laying as a “public event” (hiding that it was a private event by invitation of families) and trash the Harris-Walz campaign for not attending. (How would Harris-Walz have any idea this private event was happening)?

    @Jen:

    My .02 on what likely happened: He was invited by the family, and either he or someone on the campaign decided that they’d do a commercial because of the imagery

    My take is the campaign asked the families for the invite, these two families were very online MAGA. And people entering Arlington get heavily briefed on what is and is not allowed.

    7
  14. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    BTW: clearly, it was not a private event.

    It actually was a “private event,” refer to what I said in my earlier post.

    Either way, private or public, the behavior was both illegal and outrageous.

    1
  15. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    @CSK:

    They may find Trump embarrassing, but they’ll still vote for him.

    To what extent who will still vote for him remains to be seen. That’s kind of my point.

    I’m rough cutting the numbers, but conventional wisdom is that ~40% of the electorate are partisans for their respective parties regardless of formal affiliation. (I remember a time when 27% was the number floated around to define rabid partisanship – screw around with an intern? extort a foreign government for political dirt? I’ll still vote for you types, but let’s put that aside for now.) 40% loyal Democrat with 40% loyal Republican leaves ~20% in play based on a conventional political contest.

    But, this should not be a conventional political contest. There’s a twice impeached politician, criminally indicted insurrectionist, jury convicted fraudster, and unrepentant scumbag at the head of the GOP.

    The point I’ve been raising here at OTB (and elsewhere) is where the line might be drawn for GOP team loyalty considering all the factors I’ve just described. I believe if the press weren’t so prone to their “good stories are dramatic and easy to tell” biases, if double-standards weren’t so prevalent, if both-siderism wasn’t so knee-jerk, and if GOP politicians were made to own their validation of Trump’s worst behaviors, then Trump should be pulling at the 40% baseline (and if there were unicorns, he’d be drifting closer to the 27% basement floor.)

    Sure, if dreams were dollars, I’d be a millionaire. But, these numbers are not unreasonable based on political behaviors I’ve seen in my lifetime. If the US is to break the spell of hyper-polarization, I believe these percentages need to be the target for 2024.

    3
  16. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @joe:

    This was a private event by the families. They invited Trump.

    Trump was not allowed in Section 60, even by family invite.

    They wanted a photographer there.

    What they wanted was illegal, TS.

    12
  17. steve Avatar
    steve

    The family may or may not have wanted him there but the rules of the cemetery remain clear. They dont get to take pictures and videos for campaign purposes.

    Steve

    12
  18. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @charontwo:

    Trump was not allowed in Section 60, even by family invite.

    I believe he was allowed in that section, but could not film/photograph in the area. It wasn’t an issue he was there, the issue is what he and his staff did while there.

    12
  19. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @charontwo:

    It actually was a “private event,”

    My point being that once you publicize an event widely, it is no longer really private.

    Once his campaign made video and photos from the event widely available, it becomes quite silly to then claim is was a private event that the press is blowing out of proportion.

    4
  20. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @charontwo:

    Trump was not allowed in Section 60, even by family invite.

    I am pretty sure it is open to the public.

    Am I wrong about this?

    1
  21. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    “NPR”

    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.

    “NBC”

    Federal regulations bar “partisan political activities” at memorial services at Army cemeteries.

    Arlington National Cemetery provided Trump officials days ago with rules that outlined what they could and couldn’t do at the cemetery.

    The rules, obtained by NBC News, said gravesite visits by families and guests must follow the cemetery’s established policies for Section 60. They also said, “Photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support, of a partisan political candidate’s campaign are NOT permitted on the [Arlington National Cemetery] installation.”

    NPR first reported that two Trump campaign staff members had a confrontation with a cemetery official who tried to prevent them from filming and taking photos, which typically is restricted in Section 60.

    3
  22. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @joe:

    So you’re a-okay with Trump grinning and giving a thumbs-up sign at the site of veterans’ graves? You’re on board with that being respectful and appropriate?

    7
  23. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    My point being that once you publicize an event widely, it is no longer really private.

    So it was a private event while it was happening (when the Harris-Walz campaign had no way to know about it) that became public after the private/public distinction became irrelevant.

    Again, my point was the intention to embarrass Harris-Walz by portraying a private event as public and gigging them for not being there.

    3
  24. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @joe:

    This was a private event by the families. They invited Trump. They wanted a photographer there.

    They don’t get to make their own rules.

    In section 60, Arlington will provide a photographer. And the photographs cannot be used for campaign purposes.

    If Trump has just attended a ceremony and if they had used the Arlington photographer for memorial photos there wouldn’t have been an issue. But then the campaign decided to publish footage of it as a campaign video. And then reposted it to explicitly “troll the secretary of the army.”

    Put a different way, my friend in the army can invite me to visit his base. But it still needs to be during visitor hours and I can’t go where I want to.

    BTW the Trump campaign and it’s supporters are now attacking Harris and Biden for not attended that event. So that suggests this wasn’t a “private event.”

    9
  25. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @CSK:

    You’re on board with that being respectful and appropriate?

    Why not, judging by their grins the two MAGA families were pretty cool with it.

    2
  26. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    “NMMNB”

    Vance is Donald Trump’s running mate. We all know that one of the principles Trump learned from his mentor Roy Cohn was “Never apologize.” Years ago, Trump acknowledged this in a conversation with Howie Carr, a right-wing columnist and radio host: “Whatever you do, don’t apologize. You never hear me apologize, do you?”

    When Trump was considering Vance for the VP slot, I assume that the two of them didn’t have many deep conversations about policy. But I’m sure Trump told Vance never to say he’s sorry. A story in The New York Times tells us that Trump is watching Vance respond to controversies, many of them self-inflicted, and the former president likes what he sees:

    1
  27. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    @joe:
    Inviting Trump: Fine.
    Taking pictures with Trump: Possibly allowed, but tacky AF.
    Trump campaign making campaign advertisement: Not fine–this not only is wrong and not permitted by the rules of Arlington, it’s literally a violation of a federal law.

    9
  28. joe Avatar
    joe

    I think there’s some confusion because you all are forgetting that there’s this thing known as the internet. So once a picture ends up on there of course anyone can share/link to it which then blows it up, so now people who are obviously arguing in bad faith will say that this was a campaign event, even thought it obviously was not.

  29. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    @joe: Nope. You don’t get to gaslight us.

    They FILMED a CAMPAIGN commercial and POSTED IT.

    This is not about some solemn pictures of a bereaved family leaking out. The CAMPAIGN posted it.

    16
  30. Lucysfootball Avatar
    Lucysfootball

    Whatever heat the Trump campaign is taking for the Arlington incident, they should be getting ten times that amount. But as Scott F. said, this type of behavior is baked into Trump and his people. This time they screwed up because they touched a third rail of politics – don’t fuck with a sacred space. And even then they push back with a basket full of lies.
    Think about shit that he’s done that the media doesn’t even seem to care about.
    The Trump charity – he stole from his own charity, it was shut down and they were fined $2 million. Imagine if someone were running for mayor and that was uncovered? End of campaign the day the story broke. With Trump it’s just a day ending in day.
    The recent blowjob retweet? That should be a question in every interview with Trump and Vance, “is that how a president should act”? Instead the media does the, Oh, that’s just Trump being Trump.
    I do hope to see a one minute character ad about Trump being found guilty of sexual assault and fraud, but Harris’ team is probably afraid to do one since it might fire up his base, nothing they like better than a rapist and a thief

    8
  31. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @joe:

    You’re forgetting that everything Trump does is for self-aggrandizement, including campaigning.

    2
  32. al Ameda Avatar
    al Ameda

    @joe:

    This was a private event by the families. They invited Trump. They wanted a photographer there. Everything else is just another sociopathic dirty trick by the Dems and media. In a couple of weeks it’ll be forgotten about because you’ll have moved on to the next bit of mindless hysteria.

    Exactly. Nothing says solemnity and genuine respect for the dead at Arlington National Cemetery like a grinning ex=president’s thumbs-up gesture at the gravesite of one of the fallen soldiers whom he disrespects on a regular basis.

    9
  33. Lucysfootball Avatar
    Lucysfootball

    Everything else is just another sociopathic dirty trick by the Dems and media. In a couple of weeks it’ll be forgotten about because you’ll have moved on to the next bit of mindless hysteria.
    Maybe they’ll turn up a bunch of whiners who claim they were sexually assaulted by Trump. Like the other 25, who must have been lying. Apparently only E Jean Carroll told the truth.

    1
  34. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @joe:
    The Trump Campaign posted the campaign video, featuring footage taken in section 60, on their official channel:

    https://www.tiktok.com/@realdonaldtrump/video/7407571442088430878?lang=en

    So this is not just recirculating previously posted footage. This is the footage they filmed for campaign purposes against Army regulations.

    7
  35. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    @Not the IT Dept.:

    As amazing as it is, I’m inclined to think that the list of those most responsible for this cluster*bleep* does not start with Trump personally.

    I have to disagree. Trump picked these people, and he has made it clear that he picks people who attack and who won’t get pushed around by wusses. His minions may have handled these specific details, but they were picked because that’s how he wanted his details handled.

    3
  36. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @joe:
    For the record this isn’t just “liberals” or “Democrats”, note that a Republican there with Trump acknowledge the issue with using these images for campaign purposes:

    Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who attended the Arlington events with Trump, apologized in a social media post for sending a campaign fundraising email with a photo of him and the former president in Section 60 with the family of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover.

    Cox’s official gubernatorial X account posted a photo from the restricted area, and the post is still online.

    Source: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/29/nx-s1-5092087/trump-arlington-cemetery-altercation-video

    Or do you think Governor Cox’s analysis is wrong?

    4
  37. joe Avatar
    joe

    “Apparently only E Jean Carroll told the truth.”

    LOL. Did she ever remember the month or year this happened?

  38. joe Avatar
    joe

    “For the record this isn’t just “liberals” or “Democrats”, note that a Republican there with Trump acknowledge the issue with using these images for campaign purposes:”

    Are you new to politics, or just pretending not to know? For decades there have been liberals pretending to be Republicans to get into the action. Tactically they have to because of the city, state or congressional district they are in. Cox is one of them.

    You know how in poker, players have “tells”? Well, the “Republican” who always finds himself surrendering to whatever narrative the Democrat Party/corporate media is pushing, or attacks other Republicans but pulls their punches against Democrats, that person is a Democrat. Call it the McCain/Romney faction.
    It’s a different faction than the mercenary/ non-ideological faction of McConnell, Ryan, Boehner, etc.

  39. wr Avatar
    wr

    @joe: “Did she ever remember the month or year this happened?”

    Gosh, why don’t we ask the jury that convicted him?

    12
  40. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    I know you all know this but joe is not Joe. Just OMFG!

    10
  41. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @joe:
    So your argument is that Spencer Cox, Governor of the well-known Democratic state of… checks notes… Utah isn’t a real Republican because he did something you disagree with.

    You realize that says far more about you and your interest in facts than it says anything about the truth.

    You also engaged in an ad hominem: “he’s not a real Republican” vs the issue of substance “footage shot in Arlington cannot be used for political campaigning.”

    Finally, I see you skipped right over my post about the Trump Campaign posting that footage as a campaign ad on their Tic Tok to comment on Cox. Facts you can’t deny or easily explain away are just ignored, huh?

    12
  42. wr Avatar
    wr

    @joe: “that person is a Democrat. Call it the McCain/Romney faction.”

    So what you’re saying is that the only person in the world who gets to define who is or is not a Republican is not that party’s presidential nominees from recent years, but some anonymous internet troll who is undoubtedly saving up to buy a set of Trump trading cards.

    Yeah, we’ll all bow down to you, “Joe.” I mean, you must be a truly powerful person, what with spending your time as an anonymous internet troll and all.

    EDTA: “joe”, not “Joe.” Sorry, Joe!

    8
  43. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @joe:
    You know joe, I initially missed the wildest thing about this statement:

    Well, the “Republican” who always finds himself surrendering to whatever narrative the Democrat Party/corporate media is pushing, or attacks other Republicans but pulls their punches against Democrats, that person is a Democrat. Call it the McCain/Romney faction.

    It just registered you said John McCain and Mitt Romney were both “Democrats.”

    That’s wild that you are saying that 2008 Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain and 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney were both… checks your post again… Democrats.

    I know that it’s become a Republican talking point that Kamala Harris isn’t a legitimate candidate because she never directly won a primary. I get that. Not denying the “not winning a primary” thing. But in 2008 and 2012, both Romney and McCain won the majority of Republican Primary races. In other words, in both years, Republicans voted for them over other primary candidates.

    BTW, when McCain ran in 2008, Donald Trump was still a registered Democrat. He didn’t reregister as a Republican until 2009.

    But hey, you do you! I will say that deciding people are *not* Republican is a heck of a way to build a coalition going into a tight election where both sides need every vote they can get.

    7
  44. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @joe (no dog): it really is amazing that whatever Trump does, his fans will enthusiastically support it. Not a “great guy, but he shouldn’t have done this” or even a “he was poorly served by the staff that let this happen” — just plain support for what he did and blaming everyone else for making a big deal of it.

    The worker at the cemetery who was assaulted has reportedly said that she is not interested in pressing charges because she fears the backlash, and she’s not wrong to be concerned.

    This would be like a Democratic Stalwart saying that Biden did good in that debate. Or that Bill Clinton did the right thing with Monica Lewinsky*, or that Barrack Hussein Obama was not a secret Muslim who ate dog, or Biden was perfectly normal sniffing everyone’s hair. Just crazy shit.

    Sometimes your dude is just in the wrong. If you can’t admit that, there’s something wrong with you.

    ——
    *: she was a big step up from his Arkansas bimbos, but it was still wrong — interns are off limits.

    7
  45. Slugger Avatar
    Slugger

    BTW, how does a candidate for POTUS get set up? The job entails custody of the security of our nation. It should be extremely difficult to put something over on a serious candidate. “I really don’t know anything about it” is weak, very weak! When Trump first started talking about the 2020 election being stolen, I thought that the safekeeping of the electoral process was certainly Trump’s responsibility in 2020. These excuses are loser talk. His deflections are confessions of incompetence.

    8
  46. Gavin Avatar
    Gavin

    joe, the corporate media is conservative and supports Republicans. This has always – and will always – be the case. Corporate media is not Democratic let alone liberal. The lie that “media is liberal” was created out of whole cloth by the Republican presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater.
    If you’re going to randomly throw out insults, it would help if at least one of them was even partially true. See, when everything you post is 100% factually incorrect….. you’re not Owning The Libz, you’re just the guy who everyone fake-smiles at while taking 2 sideways steps away from.
    Also.. using the word “Democrat” as an adjective is a tell that everything in that post is a bad-faith argument.

    8
  47. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @charontwo: I think we are coming at this from different angles. I certainly agree that there was no event that Harris missed.

    I am coming at it from the POV that Trump can’t hide behind the notion that his cavorting about in public (and publicizing the activities) is protected as somehow a “private” observance with the families.

    4
  48. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    flaunting the law

    FLOUTING the law. Not “flaunting”.

    Usage police — to correct and serve.

    7
  49. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    @joe: T

    his was a private event by the families.

    Which families, Joe? The ones whose graves he was standing on? I doubt that.

    Seek help.

    1
  50. charontwo Avatar
    charontwo

    @joe:

    This was a private event by the families. They invited Trump.

    @DrDaveT:

    I find it hard to believe, unlikely, that these two families, on their own initiative, thought inviting Trump would be pretty cool. These two families were prominent online and hard right politically, my guess is the Trump campaign asked them for the invite.

    Trump did not visit Arlington one year ago or two years ago on this anniversary – this year he happened to do it two months before a big election. The inference is obvious.

    2
  51. Mikey Avatar
    Mikey

    From the Columbia Journalism Review:

    Trump’s disastrous visit to Arlington was too much for the press to handle

    Lumped together, the reporting this week left readers and listeners, especially those with no knowledge of the military, at a loss to understand what actually happened—and, crucially, why it mattered so much. The Trump campaign team had successfully muddied the waters by alleging that the photographer had been invited to the event by family members of soldiers buried there.

    But as any veteran knows in their bones, the solemnity of the ceremony is exactly why the unauthorized photographer had no business being there—regardless of who invited them. Section 60, the part of the cemetery where the incident occurred, is one of the most sacred places for this generation of troops. It is where those who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. Those graves are visited not by tourists looking for historical figures, but by mothers and fathers visiting their fallen son or daughter. In Section 60, wounds are still raw. Political activity there is never appropriate, and under the law, only cemetery staffers and approved photographers are permitted to film or take pictures there.

    Readers needed to know that, when you visit Arlington, you might not know exactly what you’re supposed to do when confronted by those rows of headstones, but you damn sure know what you’re not supposed to do. But the coverage this week left many readers with the impression that the whole thing might have been a bureaucratic mix-up, or some tedious violation of protocol. It focused on bland horse-race coverage so common during election season, rather than clearly stating what really took place: an egregious and willful violation of long-standing norms. What was missing from the coverage was a willingness to quickly and decisively state what a grievous insult the whole debacle was to the dignity of Arlington. The sacred had been profaned.

    And nothing but excuses from his supporters, whose support for the military and veterans is as much a lie as Trump’s own excuses.

    6
  52. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @DrDaveT: You are correct.

    1
  53. Skookum Avatar
    Skookum

    @charontwo:

    Agree. The rot is much deeper than just Trump. The family is all grins as they stand at the grave of their fallen family member.

    1
  54. Paul L. Avatar
    Paul L.

    I hope the Democrats make it a major issues in the 2024 campaign that the mire presence of convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Draft dodging Donald Trump desecrated the scared and hallowed ground of Arlington.
    It was an example of hate speech that the “growing consensus among social justice advocates that bigoted or simply emotionally triggering speech is akin to physical violence and should be regulated as such.”.
    Along complete gun registration and confiscation.

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