The Daily Populous Saturday August 31st, 2024 morning edition
Authored by rollingstone.com and submitted by stark247

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump attempted to spin away reports that one of his aides pushed a staffer at Arlington National Cemetery during a visit to the burial ground earlier this week, blaming the controversy on “very bad people.” He also suggested in an interview that the Gold Star families he accompanied may have been the ones who published videos from his visit, rather than members of his campaign.

During a Thursday rally in Michigan, Trump claimed that he “read that I was using the site to politic.”

“This all comes out of Washington, just like all these prosecutors come out of Washington,” he added. “These are bad people we’re dealing with.

“So I go there, they ask me to have a picture, and they say I was campaigning,” Trump complained. “The one thing I get is plenty of publicity … I don’t need the publicity.”

Trump claims the debacle in Arlington Cemetery happened yesterday — it was actually 3 days ago — and says, "these are bad people we're dealing with" (they are cemetery workers) pic.twitter.com/AgSFd8XDiG — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 29, 2024

Earlier that day, the Army confirmed that a member of Trump’s entourage “pushed” a cemetery staffer when they attempted to prevent the former president’s aide from entering the area in order to film and photograph the visit to Section 60 — an area of the cemetery reserved for recently deceased service members with strict rules surrounding media presence.

Army and cemetery rules prohibit campaigning and political activity on the burial ground. Following the visit, Trump’s campaign social media posted several videos and images taken during the visit — including in Section 60.

In an interview with NBC News following Thursday’s rally, Trump was asked whether his campaign should have published videos and photos from his visit.

Trump claimed that he didn’t know “anything about” the use of the images on his campaign social media. “We have a lot of people, we have TikTok people,” he said. “You know, we’re leading the internet.”

Pressed on it again, Trump suggested the parents of the deceased service members he had accompanied may have been responsible for distributing the videos and photos.

“I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it,” Trump said. “It could have been them — it could have been the parents.”

This is not true. Informed his campaign published videos from the visit on TikTok, he said, “I really don’t know anything about it.” Trending Fatman Scoop Suffers Medical Emergency on Stage, Transported to Hospital Trump Suggests Gold Star Families to Blame for Arlington Cemetery Controversy Trump Eats Words, Says He'll Vote to Preserve Florida's Six-Week Abortion Ban ‘It Ends With Us’ Crew Members Say Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively’s Creative Differences Were Not a Secret on Set

On Thursday The Washington Post reported that ahead of the visit, Arlington National Cemetery officials had warned Trump’s team that he could visit the grave sites, but not as part of a campaign event. The cemetery made clear that while media could accompany Trump to a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, they could not accompany him into Section 60.

The controversy won’t go away anytime soon. On Thursday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Politico, “As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I am troubled by the reporting and want to see the incident report.”

Roseking on August 30th, 2024 at 17:05 UTC »

His campaign literally released it on TikTok.

It is still there.

So is the story these families hacked his campaign's social media accounts to upload it?

My god is he an idiot.

sh4desthevibe on August 30th, 2024 at 16:46 UTC »

This absolute piece of human trash is going to throw gold star families under the bus to cover for his own campaign's violation of this hallowed ground?

When he dies, they better make his grave closed to the public. Otherwise, there's going to be a neverending line of people waiting to piss on it.

honeybakedman on August 30th, 2024 at 16:39 UTC »

The first rule of holes is to know when to stop digging.