JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The U.S. Army released an unusual statement today rebuking the Trump campaign staff for not adhering to laws governing what is and what is not permissible at Arlington National Cemetery. As NPR first reported during a visit there by the former president on Monday, a verbal and physical altercation took place between Trump campaign staffers and a cemetery staffer. The visit was meant to mark the third anniversary of an attack in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members during the chaotic American withdrawal. Now we have new details. For more, we turn to NPR’s Tom Bowman and Quil Lawrence. Hi to both of you.

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey there.

QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Hello.

SUMMERS: Tom, I’ll start with you. What have you learned?

BOWMAN: Well, Juana, first of all, the staff at Arlington National Cemetery did not deal directly with the Trump campaign about his visit there because under federal law, these Army employees can’t be involved with any political campaign. But a source familiar at the event said the cemetery staff worked with the staff of Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, who joined Trump at Arlington that day. I’m told the Arlington staff dealt directly with Mast’s chief of staff James Langenderfer, briefing him extensively on the rules, which include no campaign events at the cemetery and also that only an official Arlington Cemetery photographer could be used at Section 60, the location, of course, of the recent American war dead. So no campaign photographers – and I’m told Mr. Langenderfer told them the Trump campaign agreed to these rules.

SUMMERS: Interesting. Tom, have you heard anything from either the congressman or his staff about all of this?

BOWMAN: Well, both Quil and I have reached out to the staff over the last several days, asking, well, did Mr. Langenderfer ever get briefed on the rules, or did he say the Trump campaign agreed to them? And just a few hours ago, Juana, we did get a statement but not a response to those questions. The statement from Congressman Mast said, quote, “President Trump conducted no politics at Arlington National Cemetery,” end of quote. Well, that’s just not true because the Trump campaign put out this ad yesterday. Let’s hear just a little bit.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP: We lost 13 great, great people. What a horrible day it was.

BOWMAN: (Inaudible) went on to say, quote, “it’s a middle finger to everyone that the media is spending more time attacking President Trump for standing with these Gold Star Families than they are holding Joe Biden and Kamala Harris accountable for making them Gold Star Families.”

SUMMERS: Quil, over to you now. The U.S. Army addressed this today. Did they settle the matter in any way? What did you hear?

LAWRENCE: Well, they confirmed the facts we’ve been reporting – that the campaign knew the rules in advance. And when an Arlington employee tried to enforce the rules, she was, quote, “abruptly pushed aside.” The Army said she acted with professionalism and tried to avoid further disruption. And she later decided not to press charges. The Army called it, quote, “unfortunate” that the Arlington National Cemetery employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked, but they said that the Army considered this matter closed, which suggests that nothing will be done about the apparent violation of federal law.

SUMMERS: And what about the Trump campaign? How has the Trump campaign reacted to all this?

LAWRENCE: That’s probably what the Army statement meant by unfairly attacked – that, at first, the Trump spokesman had denied there was any altercation, said that this individual was having a mental health episode and trying to block Trump from entering Section 60. Another spokeswoman called her despicable. Today, after this really quite unusual statement from the Army, the Trump campaign just said the matter is closed. And they also pointed to a Memorial Day message from the Biden campaign in 2020, which does include a brief still photo of Biden in the same section of Arlington – should note that one Republican who was with Trump at Arlington today, Spencer Cox, the Utah governor, apologized. He said photos should never have been sent out by his campaign.

SUMMERS: Right. I just want to set aside the politics here for a second. Beyond that, why does it matter whether Trump was filmed and photographed in the cemetery?

BOWMAN: So one of the photos that the Trump campaign’s using – they’re standing with Gold Star Family members by the grave of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover. And the thing is there are other graves in that photo, and one of them is Master Sergeant Andy Marckesano. He was a Green Beret with many combat deployments, father of three, and he died by suicide in 2020. His sister reached out to me this afternoon, sent a statement on behalf of the family, saying that they support these other families wanting answers about Afghanistan. But she said that Arlington told her family, quote, that “Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit.” And she said, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave, and we hope those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom. So it’s clear they didn’t get asked if they wanted their fallen soldier’s gravestone to be in a Trump campaign ad. And this is Section 60. These are young men and women who died very young at war. These are – this is still very fresh and raw.

SUMMERS: Of course. NPR’s Quil Lawrence and Tom Bowman. Thanks to both of you.

BOWMAN: You’re welcome.

LAWRENCE: Thanks.

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