Members of Donald Trump's campaign staff are alleged to have had a verbal and physical altercation with an official at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, according to multiple reports.
The former president and Republican nominee was at Arlington for an event marking the third anniversary of a bombing on U.S. troops during the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
The incident allegedly occurred in an area of the cemetery known as Section 60, which is reserved for military personnel who have lost their lives while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. An official of the cemetery attempted to prevent the Trump staffers from filming and photographing in that area, after having made clear to them that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to do so in that area.
Arlington National Cemetery confirmed "there was an incident, and a report was filed," in a statement to NPR.
"Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign," the statement read. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."
And Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung denied a physical altercation took place and said the campaign is "prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made."
"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," Cheung's statement read.
A U.S. defense official told the Washington Post: “What was abundantly clear cut was: Section 60, no photos and no video."
The former president was at the cemetery to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in honor of Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, who were killed alongside in an Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the U.S. troop withdrawal. The bombing, carried out by a member of the Islamic State, killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians.
Trump blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, with the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal calling it a "humiliation."
The Trump campaign shared text messages with the New York Times from family members present consenting to having Trump’s campaign media attend the event at Section 60.
Cheung shared an email that said the cemetery granted permission to the campaign to have a photogropher or videographer outside of the main pool, but the exceprt did not include if the campaiing had special access to any area, including Section 60.
Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox (R), who visited the cemetery, shared a photo from Section 60 with Trump and others giving a thumbs-up pose around the grave of Staff Sgt. Hoover.
Earlier this month, Trump angered some veterans when the former president called the nation's top civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, "actually much better" than the nation's top military honor, the Medal of Honor, because those recipients are not badly injured by being "hit so many times by bullets" or "dead."