The campaign team of Donald Trump issued a statement on Sunday from the relatives of military personnel of the organization Gold Star Veterans that they invited him to Arlington National Cemetery in which they defended the Republican presidential candidate and insisted that Vice President Kamala Harris is the candidate who is politicizing the families of fallen military personnel.
This is the latest action in a long exchange of recriminations in which Trump tries to blame Harris for the way the president’s government Joe Biden He managed the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021including a suicide attack that killed 13 US service members.
On Saturday, Harris accused Trump of orchestrating a “political maneuver” that would “disrespected sacred ground” where many of the fallen soldiers from the Afghan war are buried. Trump and the families of some of the servicemen killed in the bombing blame Harris for the deaths of their loved ones, as they previously blamed Biden before he ended his re-election bid. The families also say Trump was paying tribute to their loved ones when he went to Arlington.
Read also: Trump’s visit to Arlington Cemetery sparks new controversy
Trump’s campaign later released images of the visit despite cemetery authorities prohibit the carrying out of proselytizing activities on the premises.
“We, the Gold Star families, invited President Trump to the solemn ceremonies commemorating the third anniversary of our sons’ deaths,” the families’ collective statement read. “He was there to honor their sacrifice, but Vice President Harris has shamefully misrepresented the purpose of this sacred moment as part of a political ploy.”
Gold Star families have lost loved ones in military service.
Read also: Trump ‘disrespected’ US Army cemetery, says Kamala Harris
On Monday, Trump laid wreaths in honor of Sgt. Nicole Geethe sergeant Darin Hoover and the squad sergeant Ryan Knausswho were among 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans killed in an attack on August 26, 2021, at Hamid Karzai International Airport as U.S. forces were withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Trump thanked the family members for their statement on social media. “Thank you for saying that you wanted me to accompany you (…) and take photos, which was you who asked me to do and not the other way around,” he wrote.
Over the weekend, Trump used his social media accounts to distribute videos with testimonies from some of the family members who signed the joint statement.
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