Arlington confrontation isn’t Trump’s first military cemetery controversy

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump’s campaign is co-managed by the man who engineered the “swift boating” of John Kerry in 2004, so it should come as no surprise that 20 years later, military service and treatment of veterans are turning into uncomfortable political issues.

Trump pivoted from a visit to Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week to an attack on President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan policy – a turn that apparently followed a dustup with an official at the cemetery over the campaign’s attempt to use cameras in Section 60, an area where American troops who were killed in recent wars are buried. The story was first reported by NPR, but Trump’s campaign, the cemetery and the US Army have since issued statements.

The Army’s statement, released Thursday, included a strong rebuke of Trump’s campaign and pointed out that participants at the event Monday “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery and “abruptly pushed aside” an employee of the cemetery, according to CNN’s report.

A cemetery official who made a report about the incident has decided not to press any charges, and the Army considers the matter closed. An earlier statement from the cemetery also made clear that federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries. Trump’s campaign noted that he was invited into Section 60 by Gold Star families.

There was a moving moment earlier in the summer when Gold Star families whose loved ones died in the Abbey Gate attack in Afghanistan gathered on stage at the Republican National Convention and condemned the Biden administration.

Setting aside the unknown details of what exactly transpired at the cemetery, Trump’s trip to Arlington certainly played into a political context since it was woven into a day of campaigning focused on the military and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021:

► The cemetery trip coincided with the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 American service members in Afghanistan.

► On social media and later during a speech to a National Guard conference in Detroit, Trump criticized Biden’s decision to finalize the military withdrawal from Afghanistan – although Trump didn’t mention he had accelerated that withdrawal during his final months in the White House.

► Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard endorsed Trump at that speech. Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, has been a vocal critic of US military policy.

The family of a Green Beret who is buried next to one of the service members killed in Afghanistan expressed concern in a statement to The New York Times that their loved one’s headstone, alongside the one Trump was visiting, was filmed by Trump’s campaign and posted to TikTok.

Trump’s previous visit to Section 60 also led to criticism

It’s notable that the summer is ending with controversy over Trump’s decision to visit Section 60 as a candidate, since the summer began with Biden’s look back at criticism of Trump’s decision as president not to visit a US military cemetery in France in 2018 and comments he reportedly made during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery’s Section 60 in 2017.

At the CNN presidential debate in June that was the beginning of the end of Biden’s presidential campaign, the president recalled a 2020 report in The Atlantic that Trump refused to visit a cemetery near Paris honoring Americans who died in World War I because they were “losers.”

Trump denied using that term, which came from a recounting of the incident by retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, his former White House chief of staff. Kelly later confirmed elements of the Atlantic story to CNN’s Jake Tapper and also discussed a Memorial Day ceremony in 2017 when the two were in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Trump said at the time, according to Kelly’s recollection, which Trump denies.

Kelly also had choice words for Trump recently when the former president tried to compare the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded to war heroes, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians and which Trump gave to a Republican megadonor.

“Not even close,” Kelly told Tapper.

Trump has a history of mocking or verbally attacking veterans. He repeatedly criticized the late Sen. John McCain for being taken as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, including in remarks this year. He tried to start rumors about the absence of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s husband from the campaign trail during the Republican primary this year even though Haley’s husband was deployed overseas.

Haley condemned Trump’s comments at the time, while she was still in the race, but she later spoke on his behalf at the RNC in July.

Attacks on Walz

Military service had already emerged as a campaign issue after Trump’s campaign engaged in a concerted effort to question the 24-year military service of Democrats’ candidate for vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The public face of that effort is Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who was enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq. See CNN’s fact check of Vance’s claims.

Asked Wednesday about the Arlington controversy, Vance deflected back to his criticism of Walz’s military record and said Vice President Kamala Harris can “go to hell” for the Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy.

Either Walz, who did not deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, or Vance would be the first former enlisted person to be elected nationwide since Al Gore, who enlisted in the Army and was a journalist in Vietnam before he was Bill Clinton’s vice president, and former Army Cpl. Walter Mondale, who served as former Navy officer Jimmy Carter’s vice president.

Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita, the operative behind those Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that hurt Kerry two decades ago, smugly compared the treatment of Kerry and Walz in an interview with RealClearPolitics.

“Birds of a feather will be tarred together,” he said of Walz and Kerry.

Democrats, for their part, teased Trump at the Democratic National Convention last week for draft deferment due to bone spurs that exempted Trump from Vietnam service.

With Trump at 78 years old and most Vietnam War-era Americans in retirement, it’s safe to say that no person who served in Vietnam will be elected US president. It’s an astonishing detail considering the importance of that war in US history – and the fact that it included a draft and the protests it sparked.

For comparison, every president, Republican or Democrat, from Dwight D. Eisenhower through Richard Nixon, served in World War II. So did George H.W. Bush. Carter enrolled at the Naval Academy during the war.

A slew of Vietnam War veterans, including McCain, Kerry and Gore, were on the losing end of presidential campaigns.

A rising generation of veterans in office

There are signs of a resurgence of lawmakers who served. Both parties today are showcasing their rising stars who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Democrats have Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and a host of House members, many of whom gathered on stage at the DNC last week.

Republicans have Vance, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas and many, many others.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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