A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

Incidentally, their response to this was in the NYT:

An official with the cemetery tried to “physically block” members of Mr. Trump’s team, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement. Mr. Cheung added that the cemetery official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” and that the campaign was prepared to release footage of the confrontation to support its account of the clash. The campaign did not provide that footage after several requests.

Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, added in a separate statement that the cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”

https://archive.is/REbXH#selection-901.0-905.206

Blaming mental illness on someone stopping them from exploiting recently dead service members for a political campaign is… pretty weird.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    What an absolute piece of shit.

    They were:

    1. Warned ahead of time they couldn’t film there
    2. Tried to do it anyway.
    3. Got indignant when they were forced to follow the rules like a bunch of fucking children.
    4. Then claim the service member had “mental health issues” like that somehow makes them not in the right, assuming it’s even true (which it almost certainly isn’t).
    5. Claim they’re going to release footage of the incident, but then never do (likely because it’s exactly as bad as you’d think).

    Our dead servicemen and women are not your fucking pawn piece for your shit stain campaign, asshole.

    I look forward to seeing Kamala curb stomp his sorry ass in the general election.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      Also interesting how they claim to have footage of the incident proving their ‘innocence’ from an area where they’re not allowed to be filming. Hmmm.

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        2 months ago

        MAGA folks claim to have lots of things and never deliver because their stupid cult following doesn’t actually care about whether something they want to believe is factual.

        They just want to be angry.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          Oh I’m all too familiar with that after all the election court cases with “evidence of election fraud that’ll be released at a later date,” the Fox News/Hunter Biden laptop, and the years of QAnon conspiracy theories where “evidence of the evil Denocrats engaging in XYZ is weeks away from being released!”

          In this case though, their alleged proof of no wrongdoing is itself an admission that they were wrong in the first place.

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    So someone who was clearly doing there job was getting very frustrated when, probably for the first time ever, they don’t listen or follow the rules? Guy lashes out because they are doing whatever they want and he is the one with mental health issues? I really wish the news stopped taking such a neutral stance on this crap and actually state who the problem is.

    • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is a form of bias on their part. They think or say it’s being balanced, but the lack of full factual disclosure is a choice. Bias can show up in other ways, too.

      The length of a segment, for example. How long a topic is covered shows bias through emphasis or lack of emphasis.

      Omission of details, over-covering points of view while ignoring others, when a story is covered, who covers the story, etc., may all seem unimportant, but they are choices.

      Bias isn’t necessarily bad if it’s factual. To your point, someone should be stating who this individual was - even just generally - and state something along the lines of what you’re saying to refute the “mentally ill” allegations.

      • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        but the lack of full factual disclosure is a choice

        What full facts are you assuming they had? The claim that the cemetery official was having some kind of episode was made by Civitas Cheung. That is a fact. The claim that it was not the case has apparently not been made yet by anyone. Do you want the reporters to speculate about what they think really happened? I don’t.

        • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I didn’t say they did. I was speaking with exposition, not specificity. It was a nuanced and more broad discussion on the topic of bias in general.

          Why is reading comprehension so hard for you? I wrote clearly.

  • Corngood@lemmy.ml
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    Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, added in a separate statement that the cemetery official was “a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”

    How could they resist putting a [sic] in there?

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    “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,”

    Having a photo OP and givinhg a thumbs up and a smile does not fall under the definition of solemn to me.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Good thing Trump didn’t try to rush the tomb of the unknown soldier for a photo-op - the honor guard actually has orders to shoot people being disrespectful.