Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in response to a question about a reported altercation at Arlington National Cemetery this week.
Vance was asked about an incident by reporters at his campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, that reportedly involved a Trump campaign member and cemetery officials. The Republican senator said the situation was being blown out of proportion.
He says the “altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think there is one.” He went on to say that there was “verifiable evidence” that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer with them, which was a reported point of contention.
“It is amazing to me that you have, apparently, somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody, and they have turned — the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance said.
In his opinion, Vance says that veterans care more right now about his counterpart, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), misrepresenting his military service. For his part, Walz, who served 24 years in the Army National Guard, has admitted the Harris campaign mistakenly early on referred to him as a “retired Command Sergeant Major,” instead of his actual rank at retirement, which was "master sergeant."
Per Politico, Walz in 2018 referred to “weapons of war, that I carried in war” when denouncing gun violence, though he did not serve in a war combat zone. A Harris spokesperson later said he “misspoke” in saying he carried weapons 'in' war, but that he did “handle weapons of war.”
Vance served in public affairs office of the Marines from 2003 to 2007, and his running mate Donald Trump received five military draft deferments in his youth to avoid serving in Vietnam.
As for Vance and Arlington, he shifted the topic, slamming the Biden administration and Harris for their handling of the exit from Afghanistan, which resulted in 13 Americans dying.
“The other thing our veterans care a lot more about is that three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation or a single firing,” Vance said.
He went on to say that while “mistakes happen,” being “the nature of government” and “military service,” it’s not right that no one lost their job.
“But to have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful,” Vance said.
In 2021, during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate near Kabul’s airport killed 13 Americans while the nation was leaving the Middle Eastern country.
“We’re going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives. It’s that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up,” Vance said. “She can go to hell.”
The Harris campaign has not yet offered comment on Vance’s latest attack.