By Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Saturday over a go to he made to troopers’ graves at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery that was later utilized in marketing campaign video footage.
“It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics,” Harris wrote in an X put up.
The vice chairman weighed in 5 days after Trump took half in a wreath-laying ceremony on Monday honoring the 13 servicemembers killed through the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
He additionally visited Part 60 of the Virginia cemetery, which the navy considers hallowed floor. Federal regulation and Pentagon insurance policies don’t permit political actions in that part, however Trump’s marketing campaign took movies and used them for commercial functions as he battles Democrat Harris in an in depth race for the White Home.
Trump’s go to drew criticism from some veterans and troopers’ kinfolk. The U.S. Military on Friday defended a cemetery worker who was pushed apart at Part 60, saying she acted professionally and was being unfairly attacked.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Harris wrote.
Throughout a speech in Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump mentioned households of service members who died in Afghanistan had requested him to go to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
“I got there and we had a ceremony,” Trump mentioned. They then requested if he may come to the graves, Trump mentioned, after which they sought a photograph. “I said ‘absolutely.’ So I was taking pictures at the grave,” he mentioned.
Trump vice presidential choose JD (NASDAQ:) Vance and press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Harris’ put up on Saturday with their very own that referenced the Afghanistan pullout and accused Harris of being insensitive to the servicemembers who died there.
“Why don’t you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?” Vance wrote.
Trump used the third anniversary on Monday of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to attempt to pin the chaotic pullout beneath President Joe Biden on his vice chairman.
Harris, 59, turned the Democratic nominee within the Nov. 5 presidential election after Biden, 81, pulled out of the race in July.
The vice chairman’s response to the Trump cemetery go to might give a clue to how she would deal with the subject of their upcoming Sept. 10 debate.
Harris referred to Trump’s historical past of insulting navy veterans.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients,” she wrote.
Trump as soon as mentioned the late Senator John McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate, was not a warfare hero although he spent years as a prisoner of warfare in North Vietnam after being shot down whereas a Navy pilot.
Trump referred to fallen World Warfare One veterans as “suckers” and “losers,” in response to his former White Home chief of employees, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps common. Trump continues to dispute that report.
It was unclear whether or not such incidents would sway the veterans vote. In an April report, the Pew Analysis Middle discovered that navy veterans favor the Republican Occasion.
