Several Gold Star families defend Trump’s Arlington Cemetery visit, criticize Harris for her response

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Several Gold Star families defend Trump’s Arlington ********* visit, criticize Harris for her response

Gold Star families of service members who were ******* during the ********** ******* on Kabul airport during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, some of whom attended a visit to Arlington National ********* with former President Donald Trump that resulted in controversy, criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for attacking Trump.

Harris took to social media on Saturday to condemn Trump and his campaign for disrespecting a “sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.” 

The former president responded to Harris with a series of short videos from the families, including those that did and did not formally invite him to attend the memorial at Arlington National ********* on Monday. 

In a

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, Gold Star father Mark Schmitz, father of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, said they didn’t invite Trump to the ********* to “help his campaign.” 

“We wanted a leader,” Schmitz said. 

“How do you sleep at night knowing it was you, this administration, you and Biden, you, being the last one in the room, are responsible for the ****** of our 13 kids,” Jim McCollum, Gold Star father of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, said in another

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. “You have ******* for three years and eight months to acknowledge our kids, to acknowledge me. You don’t know me, you’ve never spoken to me, You’ve never reached out to me, you have ******* in your duty as vice president.”

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Donald Trump visits Arlington ********* to pay tribute to the 13 servicemembers ******* during the Afghanistan evacuation.

Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The response from the families is the latest in a controversy over Trump’s visit to Arlington National *********. These are Harris’ first comments since it was reported that an altercation between a ********* official and a Trump campaign staffer occurred on Monday. 

While the Trump campaign says it had explicit permission to bring “campaign designated media” on to ********* grounds, rules at Army National Military Cemeteries are dictated by federal law which prohibits any filming for partisan, political or fundraising purposes, according to Arlington National ********* media policies, even if there are requests by family members of the fallen.   

The Army said an Arlington ********* employee “who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside” by a member of Trump’s campaign. 

“The incident was reported to the JBM-HH (****** Base Myer-Henderson Hall) police department, but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed,” the Army said. 

Trump made the Afghanistan withdrawal issue central to his campaign in stops in Michigan and Pennsylvania this week, defending himself against the physical altercation accusations, and blaming the Biden-Harris administration for the 13 deaths and dozens of wounded U.S. service members in that *******.

“These are great people, and when you think about it, Joe Biden ******* their children by incompetence. It should never happen. Kamala ******* their children, just as though they had a **** in their hand, by ****** incompetence,” Trump said at a stop in Potterville, Michigan on Thursday, adding Friday in Pennsylvania, “I love those people, I’m so happy they took pictures of me and them.”

At July’s *********** National Convention, some of the same relatives of the 13 ********* service members ******* appeared on stage, criticizing President Biden for not publicly naming their loved ones. 

Several of the Gold Star families said they asked to take photos with Trump during the visit. 

Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, defended Trump’s visit in another video, saying that their actions at Arlington National ********* on Monday were “solemn and in keeping with the reverence and respect given to all of our members of the military ******* there.”

Vance says Kamala Harris “can go to *****” after question about Trump incident at Arlington

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