What was the original idea behind Donald Trump's visit to Arlington Cemetery? Was it just intended as an excuse to bash Biden and Harris for not showing up? I don't know. But Fox News is sure making it seem plausible:
Biden, who skipped Arlington event for vacation, trashed Trump in June for declining cemetery visit https://t.co/Gvn1yBEpIF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 30, 2024
There was, of course, no Arlington "event." It was just Trump hauling in a camera to capture video of him grinning and doing a thumbs-up in front of a grave. It was campaign theater and nothing more—and Fox News knows it.
This whole episode keeps getting creepier and more disgraceful. These guys just don't know when to quit.
If Trump taught Republicans anything it's that there's no bottom to how low they can sink. It'll get far worse for the foreseeable future. Trump has no morals or ethics. He does as he pleases. And to the eternal shame of the Republicans, they fall in right behind him.
The usual rule is, when you find yourself in a whole, stop digging. Trump just reaches for a bigger shovel. Their whole story is so preposterous, the only ones who will believe it are true-blue MAGAnauts, who will believe anything. My thinking is that this story is so bad for Trump that keeping it alive just helps to alienate and motivate everyone else.
"Biden, who skipped Arlington event for vacation, trashed Trump in June"
Well, that tears it. I for one have decided to not vote for Biden for president ever again. (Although, in that photo, I am glad that there is a soldier there to prop up that wreath that Trump seems to be trying to push over--very disrespectful!)
Thank you Fox!
Excuse me, but why the fuck are any Marines participating in this phony "event" to help Trump make a campaign ad?
Trump's not the only one showing disrespect to the troops. Whoever OK'd the use of Marines and a bugler for Trump's Potemkin tribute is guilty too. They are breaking the law. Someone's head needs to roll.
I've been wondering the same thing. The Army is pretty clear that they communicated to Trump's team that this was illegal. Did the Marine Corps not know this? Did they just not care? You can be certain that if a Democratic candidate did this there would already be eight Congressional committees investigating.
Did the Marine Corps actually participate? Is the guy in the picture perhaps a former Marine wearing his uniform or (remember this is the Trump team) perhaps even an actor cosplaying a Marine?
Fake Marines? God, that would be something.
The most benign explanation is that the Marines were there for a legit function in support of the families (as Kevin B suggests below), and then Trump crashed the party.
But nobody knows and won't know until news people start asking the right questions.
The ceremony occurred at the Tomb of the Unknowns, there would've been bloodshed had the military participants not been vetted beforehand.
Also I believe that all the personnel involved were Army. USMC Ceremonial Musicians have red blouses not red covers.
It raises some obvious questions for the Pentagon, in particular Marine Corps brass.
Trump is not Commander-in-Chief. What channels did he go through to get Marine participation? Who approved and ordered the detail to participate. Why were they there at an illegal event? If they did not know it was illegal, why not? Did Trump lie? What are the consequences for those who approved and participated? If none, why not? Was Speaker Johnson's reported involvement related to getting Marines to appear at Arlington?
These are all unknowns and this is the kind of mystery journalists pride themselves on uncovering and reporting. Is anyone even asking these questions?
Time for the NYT, WaPo, WSJ, NPR, and all the networks to get to work.
Not sure what you’re talking about. There was a ceremony honoring the soldiers that died three years ago in Afghanistan. Obviously the ceremony would include military honor guard, as all ceremonies at Arlington do. Some of the families of those fallen soldiers invited Trump.
That may be. Good to know.
It may also be good to know what the honor guard's actions were that day when the private family ceremony turned into an unlawful campaign commercial that the Arlington official tried in vain to prevent.
A lot of things we can assume but it would be better if reporters dig to uncover what actually happened.
I could be wrong, but I think the wreath laying was in an area where it was okay. It was when they moved onto area 61 where the graves are that they got into trouble.
There was an event honoring the soldiers that died during the evacuation of Afghanistan. Presumably the Marine honor guard was participating. Kevin is incorrect that there was no event. Trump just disgracefully (and illegally) politicized it.
Any group may request a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns, and an honor guard will be present. All events at the Tomb are open to the public. Presumably, this particular observance was requested by one or more of the families?
What is more accurate is to say that there was no public event. There was nothing that Biden should, or even could, have attended.
Yes. It is more correct to say that the area around the Tomb is a public space. Groups may schedule a ceremony there, but the public will not be excluded.
As I understand it there were two separate events, one at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which operates as a public venue, and one at Sec. 60 with 2 of the families of the 13 dead at Abbey Gate among others recently killed elsewhere. At the Tomb, wreath-laying is permitted and an Armed Forces escort would have been provided as a standard courtesy, to ensure decorum was observed. I doubt any military were present at Section 60 because that visit was not authorized. As to which pics came from where, that may be clear from the surroundings.
That's the dress uniform of the army's Old Guard.
https://jtfncr.mdw.army.mil/oldguard/
Should've scrolled.
"unlike trump, biden refuses to celebrate the death of a US serviceman"
They’re beginning to realize what a catastrophe this is for Trump, and so they’re doing the only thing they know: flooding the zone with shit.
Vicious, barefaced lies blasting out 24/7. Vance repeatedly lied that no investigation was made into Abbey Gate, which is utterly insane (there was an extensive investigation as well as a follow up two years later).
They’re all just vile, awful people. Good on the Army for rebuking Trump. America needs to scrape him like dog shit off the bottom of our collective shoe. Senate Republicans had a chance to put him all out of our misery but were cowardly traitors.
And so—yet again—it will be up to African American women to save the soul of this nation.
no it will take ever damn one of us.
African American women are an important part of this country, but they are only about 6% of the population. As Mudwall notes, saving the nation will take everybody.
kkseattle can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they were alluding to one African-American woman in particular. Or Caribbean-Indian-American woman, if you will.
Ah, I totally missed that. Good point!
Reminds me of "The Onion" article, "Black man given nation's worst job"
https://theonion.com/black-man-given-nations-worst-job-1819570341/
Black women have stepped up to push Joe over the top and will do so again for Kamala. And they helped Barack too.
We're still cleaning up after Trump...much easier to break things then to build things up.
Yes, we'll need everyone else too.
"They’re all just vile, awful people....scrape him like dog shit off the bottom of our collective shoe."
That's about the best description I've heard. It never ceases to amaze me how truly gross and amoral a significant percentage of this country has become. It's like the scum from the top of a septic tank - rank, foul, pestilent, beyond disgusting, the ooze at the bottom of a landfill.
This, of all stories, has legs? After so many stories of Trump's ugly behavior
There is something about this, like the rabbit attacking Carter's boat, or Her Emails, which piques the media's attention. Maybe because it epitomizes something about Trump but is not based on him being a vulgar fascist ass in front of a microphone - you can't say "But he's just a stupid buffoon -what do you expect?"
Does it have legs? Doubtful that anyone be talking about this after 12PM on Saturday.
Trump lies and FOX tells lies for him. This is not considered to be newsworthy by the political media.
This does have the potential to become Trump's "but her emails," which would be extremely bad news for the GOP and could even hurt down ticket races.
I am surprised no one at Fox jumped in front of the story before someone hit publish to note that it is a really bad idea to jump into the fray to try and help Trump at this point in the campaign. The story will not help Trump, and keeps the story in the news...I would definitely want to move on to another subject right about now if I were in Trump's shoes.
It pushes the Harris-Walz interview off the front page.
"This, of all stories, has legs?"
It's remarkable that anything has legs when it's a scandal involving Trump. But this one does. A few thoughts on why, and they are about how Trump at this point in his political life is breaking certain rules that should not be broken.
1. It's about dissing the troops, and that's not permitted. (Dissing officers and the brass is another matter.)
2. It's about breaking the law plainly and inarguably. (Many of his crimes are complex and seemingly more debatable.)
3. It's a drip-drip-drip story, and not some one-and-done news flash. (Old news like a $10 million bribe from Egypt may be big but it's instantly treated like old news.)
4. Trump is no longer the Trump of 2016. He's old, his act is stale, and he's losing. That means one thing. He's broken the most sacred of all commandments that ensures media will let you get away with anything: Don't Be Boring. Donny T has nothing left in his bag of tricks. His show is about to be canceled.
If Dems want this to have legs then the Senate needs to start an investigation and issue subpoenas. There needs to be a trickle of news about this one event every couple of days till election day. That's how you give a story legs.
Great idea! First order of business should be to subpoena TFG, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. McCaul. Because why not.
Senator Tim Kaine is already on it, asking for the documents from the Army.
Also Fox News was lying about Biden being on vacation. Biden returned from California Saturday when the Israel/Lebanon conflict heated up.
I keep hoping that "faux" will be like the ouroboros and eventually eat it's on head.
There's a new bio-pic about Trump coming out in October. He doesn't seem to be too pleased about it. And of course his mouth piece Stephen Cheung, who looks as more like a bouncer than a spokesperson, has threatened to sue the film maker. I hope it's on a streaming service.
I heard that they asked Cheung for comment, and Cheung responded, "Kamabla."
I don't think it was true that there was no event. I believe there was a gathering of families for a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the death of troops in Afghanistan. Those families have a history with Trump and they invited him.
Which is not to say that he won't use it to his advantage.
Kb
This is probably correct.
There are many republicans in the military. MANY of them believe the bombastic statements of TFG, which is fie by me.
That being said, neither the families that invited Trump nor the various Trump officials knew of - OR - actively refused to follow the protocol's for that particular area of Arlington National Cemetery. Trumps people SHOULD have known of these protocol's as they held ceremonies there before.
THIS is what bothers me most about this. Trump and his staff should have known and did not follow these simples rules in such a somber, heroic place.
"should have known" is incorrect; there was no confusion or misunderstanding
they were notified before they ever arrived about the restrictions on campaigning but when they got there they told the cemetery employee to fuck off
What lower-case said.
They knew the rules well ahead of time, and then once physically there, the Cemetery Staff member once more tried to tell them again, and they just shoved her out of the way ignoring all instructions.
It is not just a particular area, no political-campaign use is allowed anywhere in the entire cemetery.
TWO families, one of them reportedly headed by an avid MAGA grandfather,
we're a republic, not a democracy.
the two families standing with donold are like the 270 votes in the electoral college.
Until now, I didn't see any retired army officer saying anything about it, which looks to me surprising. Anybody has any ideas why?
Donald must be really desperate about the small crowds he is attracting. Now he has Faux News complaining that Biden didn't attend his latest campaign event.
Looks like the Trump sheep are now attempting to put out this dumpster fire by trying some misinformation as to whether or not there was an official 'event' .
This was part of the original misinformation strategy of the Trump campaign and the followers really want to try to bring the focus back to this original rollout strategy.
Trump has always hated the troops, its no surprise that he is trying to take advantage of them and use their sacrifice and suffering for his own benefit.