Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is denying reports of an altercation between campaign staffers and an official at Arlington National Cemetery.
According to the reports, the alleged altercation began when the official told the campaign there could be no photos or videos.
“There was no physical altercation as described, and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“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 did not provide an original copy of the message or the footage he referenced.
“A nameless bureaucrat at Arlington whose job it is to preserve the dignity of the cemetery is doing the complete opposite in trying to make what was a very solemn and respectful event into something it was not,” Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita said in a separate statement.
A spokesperson for Arlington National Cemetery told The Epoch Times via email that “there was an incident, and a report was filed.”
“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 spokesperson said. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
Cemetery officials declined to release any further information, citing a desire to “protect the identity of the individual involved.”
Trump went to the cemetery to take part in a ceremony with relatives of service members who died as U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
The relatives said they approved Trump’s official videographer’s and photographer’s presence at the event to make sure the ceremony was recorded so they could “cherish these memories forever.”
They also said that the former president and his staffers “conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity.”
Trump was not joined at the ceremony by President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the White House, the president was in Delaware, while Harris was in Washington receiving briefings and conducting meetings with staff.
