For Trump, Arlington Cemetery Tiff Goes from Bad to Worse

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Donald Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was quickly followed by a thumbs-up photo-op at a gravestone in Section 60 of the cemetery, where many service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried. The Trump campaign received warnings about not taking photographs in Section 60, however, the Republican operation did not heed those warnings.

Posted by tonyroma at 11:30 PM | 90 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

He reportedly did not - repeat, did not - actually piss on any of the graves. Reportedly. So they say.

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2024-08-29 09:17 AM

Trump campaign was warned not to take photos at Arlington before altercation, defense official says
apnews.com

Donald Trump is a mentally ill man and that illness means that he feels supremely entitled, without need or capacity of empathy, and always struggling (unsuccessfully) to understand what is normal.

Those people who go out of their way to run over cats? He's one.

*Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery. 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.

*USA Today published a report on veterans who were not pleased with Trump's actions. The article quoted retired Major General Paul Eaton, a senior adviser at VoteVets, who called the campaign's actions at the cemetery "nauseating" and "repugnant."

*As feared, Team Trump has already released a campaign video featuring footage of the GOP candidate's visit to Arlington.

*The Trump campaign's actions this week likely violated federal law. A Washington Post report reviewed the relevant details.

*Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Vice President Kamala Harris "can go to hell" for criticizing Trump's cemetery appearance, despite the fact that Harris hadn't actually made any such criticisms. The Ohio senator later declined to say whether presidential candidates should have to abide by federal law prohibiting campaigns from filming at gravesites.

To me, the most egregious part of this entire travesty was the fact that male Trump staffers physically confronted a woman only doing her job and then immediately denigrated her personally in public comments when both the law and the orders given the Trump campaign explicitly forbade campaign photography in Section 60. And then to top it off, head hillbilly and VP candidate JD Vance tried to tie actual VP Harris to a question he received about the incident that he dismissed, and then proceeded to do a drive-by shooting of Harris' judgment and character over something he invented out of his own diseased mind and ended his baseless rant by telling the VPOTUS to "Go to hell(!)" as though her existence alone is worthy of condemnation.

Trump and his lapdog Vance simply are either unprepared or too buried within their own misogyny and bullying to figure out how to counter the momentum Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have generated which now finds the Trump campaign foundering in its inability to find an effective counter. Somehow I don't think bullying and denigrating women will turn out to be a winning strategy.

And why exactly, does Trump insist that laws don't apply to him if they run counter to what he wants to do? One couldn't possibly find a person who believes more fervently that his unearned, undeserved privilege immunizes him from any and all criticism - including the right to break laws as he sees fit. Hopefully the election returns and Jack Smith will finally disabuse him of that thought once and for all.

What's the big deal? They're dead, what the hell do they care? They're like just ... oh, whatayacallem ... props. That's it. They're just props.
~ Don the Con

And one more BIG POINT about Trump, Arlington National Cemetery, and all those KIA buried there: Every single one of them went to their deaths under the chain of command of one US President or another. Military command is an imperfect art always open to criticism when plans go wrong.

For Trump to critically highlight one incident to criticize the then-CIC is wholly hypocritical when many US service members died on his watch as well - with one particular set of deaths in Africa standing out for having occurred due to poor support on the ground, which Trump then compounded by insulting a widow whom he was forced to call, ostensibly to console her, not besmirch her dead husband.

War is imprecise and fraught with peril, that's why it's to be avoided at all costs short of capitulation. To try and point out blood on another person's hands while your hands are just as bloody is despicable and only confirms that Trump has no idea why Americans voluntarily defend their nation through military service, something anathema to his very consciousness.

What kind of ------- stands smiling with a thumbs up posing for a photo op in a solemn place for men and women he called suckers and losers?

Someone who is pretending to care about soldiers.

Someone who does not have an ounce of concern about anyone other than himself.

Someone who does not sacrifice anything for anyone and cannot fathom the idea of serving the nation to protect it.

Someone who says he can't understand why the enlist because they don't get anything out of it.

Someone who only cares about what he can get out of anything, someone who cares only about himself.

He doesn't give a flying rats turd about the soldiers, the country, the middle class, the poor, the rich, his wives, his kids, his mistresses, etc. He loves only himself and whatever money he can pilfer from the magidiots.

What a sad hollow life.

History will remember him as the worst president.

I cannot wait until we no longer see his face, be bombarded in his rambling word salad and his obnoxious voice.

He promised in 2000 that if he lost we would never see or hear from him again. Just another lie.

Sadly when he loses in 2024 he will still run again in 2028 because he can keep pilfering the social security checks of the magidiots.

Trump campaign was warned not to take photos at Arlington before altercation, defense official says
apnews.com

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2024-08-29 09:23 AM | Reply | F

He doesn't care. He has always been living the life of affluenza.

It is also against the LAW to take photos for political purposes in the cemetery.

If he is held accountable it will just be another thing he will call a "witch hunt".

"Sadly when he loses in 2024 he will still run again in 2028"

OMG. You are right. We will never be rid of him!

When he loses he will have to keep running to try and stay one step ahead of the jailer.

And he will be like 82 years old. So it will definitely be sad.

"Unfairly attacked': Army defends employee involved in Trump campaign incident at Arlington

The Army is defending an Arlington National Cemetery official involved in an incident with the Trump campaign this week at the national memorial, saying the woman was "abruptly pushed aside" and "unfairly attacked" by the Trump staffers and its surrogates.

The unidentified female staff member has declined to press charges due to concern over retaliation, and the Army, which runs national cemeteries, said in a statement Thursday morning that it considers the matter closed.

After the incident was first reported, the Trump camp denied that the employee was shoved and called her "despicable" and had mental health problems."

www.politico.com

She's rightly afraid of being vilified and attracted by these MAGA animals.

attacked, not attracted lol

The family of the late Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving several combat tours and suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, also spoke out Wednesday about Trump's cemetery visit, saying they were upset about him filming near his grave.

"According to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover's gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother's grave," Marckesano's sister Michele told The New York Times.

"We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly," she added.

Wonder how long it will take Trump or one of his rabid attack dogs to make crude and snide remarks regarding the comments leveled by Sgt. Marckesano's sister for having the audacity to point out that Trump's conduct violated federal law as well as the protocol instructions given his entourage on Monday?

Probably about a 1/10ths scaramucci is my guess.

And it continues to get worse for the GOP.

When Arlington National Cemetery Denied Trump Joining Gold Star Families, Mike Johnson Stepped In: Report

When Arlington National Cemetery reportedly told Gold Star families whose children were killed in the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that former President Donald Trump could not accompany them to mark the third anniversary of their children's deaths, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stepped in.

"The Speaker of the House had to get involved. Reps [Darrell] Issa (R-CA), [Brian] Mast (R-FL), and Chairman Mike McCaul were instrumental in assisting in the Gold Star families," another source told the Caller.

"Arlington Cemetery officials claimed the families didn't want any media, photography, or videography at Section 60, contradicting what the families had actually requested. The families were fine with the media, designated by the Trump team, but Arlington kept pushing back, obstructing the process," the source added. "This would have not happened without Speaker Johnson."

So let's get this straight: Two Trump-convention attending parents wanted him to accompany them during a ceremony to commemorate the tragic bombing deaths during our Afghanistan bugout, and Arlington National Cemetery said no because there's federal laws against using military cemeteries for political events or political purposes. So they enlisted the Speaker of the House to override ANC's denial. And then Trump and his goons go out and violate multiple federal statutes, including physically assaulting a female employee who had tried to make them adhere to the protocols they had agreed to; no professional photos in Section 60. And they published photos of the grave of another soldier who'd committed suicide, and whose family was NOT okay with Trump using their son's headstone to further his own political agenda.

What a thoroughly disgusting individual, desecrating one of America's most revered and sacred places with his thuggishness and buffoonery.

Trump love Army. Why Army not love Trump? Trump confused. Trump mad.

Which MAGA thug(s) pushed this woman? Was it a man? Was it the (gasp!) Algerian boxer?

Was it a man?

#15 | Posted by anton

Yes. We know that much.

Now Don the Con is obliviously claiming that he's the victim in this controversy:

After his campaign's staffers "abruptly pushed aside" an official at Arlington National Cemetery and ignored rules prohibiting political activity on its grounds, President Donald Trump is pushing back, saying he was the victim of a smear campaign from "bad people" out of Washington.

"Those incredible parents ... asked me to go yesterday to Arlington, and I did," Trump said at a rally Thursday in Michigan. (He was actually at the cemetery on Monday.)

"And while I was there, I was there for a long time. ... While we were there, they said: Could you take pictures over the grave of my son, my sister, my brother, would you take pictures with, us sir?' I said, Absolutely.' I did. Then I said farewell, I said goodbye."

"Last night I read that I was using the site to politic, that I used it to politic," Trump said on Thursday night. "This all comes out of Washington, just like all these prosecutors come out of Washington. ... These are bad people we're dealing with."

Trump's own former advisor, John Bolton plainly notes what Trump is determined to ignore about the totality of his campaign's actions.

Former Trump White House national security adviser John Bolton flagged what GOP nominee Donald Trump did "wrong" following his controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery this week.

"And to be clear, what Trump may have done at Arlington with the families, whatever he said to them, pictures that were taken. That's not anything that's wrong," Bolton said.

"What was wrong was what he did after they left the cemetery," he continued. "By taking the films and so on and turning them into a political advertisement, that is what's forbidden and that's what he did. And I think that's why people are legitimately upset."

"That's expressly what Congress was trying to prevent. And, and in the regulations that make it clear that that's not what Arlington National Cemetery is for," Bolton said.

"I can't predict what the political outcome will be but it's - I just think it's shameful behavior."

Yes it was.

# 16

Ah good. Another major accomplishment for right-wing gender ideology.

LaCivita posted the campaign video again of Trump at Arlington:

Chris LaCivita
@LaCivitaC
"Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy"

x.com

There isn't anyone on the Trump campaign that isn't total trash.

Just the smiling thumbs-up should be enough to cost him the election.

#21 | Posted by Derek_Wildstar

So out of place on such a solemn occasion but so in character.

-------- gonna be --------.

If you are a veteran, and you think it's ok for DT to stand over the grave of a fallen soldier, flashing a thumbs up and a smile, then it is time to admit to yourself and others that you are no longer a member of a political party. You are a member of a cult. It is your absolute right as an American citizen to do this, but don't turn around and say you stand with your fallen brothers and sisters, because you don't.

Want to know what's the absolute worst thing about Trump's continuing trashing of America's military heroes?

He doesn't have a conscious clue as to why he's being criticized, nor can he viscerally comprehend why Americans hold those who've made the "ultimate sacrifice" in such high regard. Both inabilities are rooted in his clinical narcissism and sociopathic myopia - where he's incapable of any analysis that doesn't start through the prism of his needs wants and desires, first and foremost.

IMO, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz has thrown Trump for such a loop that all his pathological tendencies are colliding at once in a way they never have before. The one thing that many on the right cannot countenance is trying to serve two masters at the same time. Now that Trump is showing weakness towards his anti-abortion supporters by trying to play footsie with the majority of women who think a 6-week ban is simply too draconian and controlling, his continued trashing of military service and its heritage, traditions, and honors respecting our fallen and injured warriors has to be damaging his brand in ways political opponents haven't been able to so far.

Trump is clearly positioning himself as not only an unfit POTUS candidate, he's rubbing both supporters' and detractors' faces in his abject ignorance and glaring lack of common humanity, making this election not one driven by policy, but instead turning it into a referendum on his undeniably flawed character and his total lack of respect for America and Americans outside of how he can use both to serve his greedy egocentrism.

#26 | Posted by tonyroma

He's lying to all sides. Not that unusual for Trump. What's a bit different is that he's not even trying to keep track of his lies. This is what happens when desperation meets psychopathy meets cognitive decline. If he wins the WH again he'd have to be removed as quickly as JD Vance could sharpen the knives.

Let's all forget the dead soldiers and the blood on Harris/Biden's hands. Buh Trump makes Harris look bad.

During Trump's presidency, which ran from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, there were 45 combat deaths among U.S. service members reported in Afghanistan

Why didn't the smelly orange pedo stage any photo ops for any of these "suckers and losers?"

Let's all forget the dead soldiers and the blood on Harris/Biden's hands. Buh Trump makes Harris look bad.

#28 | Posted by visitor_

Are you trying to retire with the lifetime prize for moronic irony? Don't you dimbulbs realize that every single person in ANC who was KIA died under someone's presidency? There are 400,000 bodies buried at ANC, but Trumpers only think that those who died due to a suicide bombing under Joe Biden's watch have any grievance?

This is why no one mentions the obvious - ANC is about honoring the dead, not blaming those whose orders placed them there. Every soldier's premature death is a tragedy for those who loved them, no exceptions.

If what Trump's doing was the norm, Ronald Reagan would have been dragged for eternity over his lapse in protecting the 241 who died in the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983. Americans normally don't criticize CIC's for the actions of our enemies - except for one glaring exception - the draft dodging, troop besmirching coward known as Donald J. Trump, who not only refused to answer the call when his country came asking, he used his family's wealth to insure some other person's child would have to take his place defending America's interests.

It shows how badly Harris/Biden's disastrous cut and run in Afghanistan hurts them by how fervently supporters and the media try to ignore and deflect from it.

It reminds us that Trump allowed the disaster in Afghanistan to continue unnecessarily all through his watch and then design a failed exit strategy and dump it on the next administration to implement.

Now do Gaza and the Ukraine and Obama's 8 years, Syria and Libya.

Now do the 1.3 million Americans who choked out because the------------- botched the pandemic response.

Getting out of Afghanistan was always going to be a total cluster-something, and not unlike the removal of an arrow from a cavalryman's chest in old cowboy movies or the rooftop final exit from Vietnam, it was painful and messy. In the movies it was a large swallow of whiskey and a grimace that helped with the arrow's removal.

Re 33

I'll let you handle the whataboutisms.

And I too wish Biden had been less trusting of Trumpy's motives and not allowed the disastrous plan as Trumpy designed it to proceed.

But that doesn't explain why Trump handled it the way he did.

Dumping a failed exit strategy onto the next administration like that and crossing his fingers gleefully hoping it would be as chaotic as it was.

It shows how badly Harris/Biden's disastrous cut and run in Afghanistan hurts them by how fervently supporters and the media try to ignore and deflect from it.

You are one depraved individual. But you keep on being you. Pick up a history book sometime and look at what happened during our Vietnam bugout in Saigon. Frankly, it makes Afghanistan look almost orderly.

Had Harris/Biden actually followed Trump's plan it might not have been a disaster. But you want us to believe that the same Biden that reversed all of Trump's executive orders on day one and reversed Trump's border policy to disastrous consequences also on day one, followed Trump's Afghanistan plan. Because he had no choice? Sure Jan.

@#38 ... it might not have been a disaster. ...

How so?

Mass graves were visible from space after the------------- let Covid run wild. I wonder why Putin's bitch skipped the photo op at this site.

www.vice.com

Had Harris/Biden actually followed Trump's plan

#38 | Posted by visitor

Trump is incapable of planning.

Song by Sly Fox

Sitting with the thinker
Trying to work it out
It's a traffic jam of the brain
Makes you wanna scream and shout
Presidential party
No one wants to dance
Looking for a new star
To put you in a trance
Let's go all the way
Let's go all the way
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's go all the way
Working in a factory
Eight days a week
Try to make dollar
Down, what a beat
Cartoon capers
Happen in reality
Rich man, poor man
Living in fantasy
Let's go all the way
Let's go all the way
Oh, oh, oh, let's go all the way
Wow!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Living in New York
Looks like an apple core (apple core)
Asphalt jungle
Got to be a man-of-war
California dreamers
Sinking in the sand (the sand, the sand, the sand)
The Hollywood squares are
Living in Disneyland
Let's go all the way (let's go all the way)
Let's go all the way (let's go all the way)
(Ah, ah, ah) think it'd make a better way
Let's go all the way
Go all the way
Yeah, let's go all the way
Yeah
Na, na, na-na-na
Na, na-na-na-na-na-na
Na, na, na-na-na, yeah
Na, na, na-na-na
Na, na-na-na-na-na-na
Na, na, na-na-na, yeah

Because he had no choice?

Yep. Trump signed the withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, not Joe Biden. Troop decided not to listen to his generals that wanted 4000 troops to remain until withdrawal by giving orders that only 2500 would be left in country. And he did all these things AFTER Biden defeated him on November 3rd.

Again, read some factual history that isn't spun to hide Trump's ultimate responsibility for creating the conditions present when Biden followed the agreement Trump negotiated himself.

The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.

And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.

March 4, 2020 " Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Taliban pledged in the classified documents not to attack U.S. troops and coalition forces or launch "high-profile attacks," including in Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals. "[T]he Taliban have signed up to a whole series of conditions ... all the Members of the Congress have all the documents associated with this agreement," Milley says.

Despite the agreement, the Taliban attack Afghan forces in Helmand province, and the U.S. responds with an air strike.

March 10, 2020 - Under pressure from the U.S., Ghani orders the release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners, but at the rate of 100 per day.

Sept. 3, 2020 - Afghanistan releases the final 400 Taliban prisoners, as required under the U.S.-Taliban agreement, clearing the way for intra-Afghan peace talks to begin.

Sept. 16, 2020 - The Taliban continued attacks on government forces. The Voice of America reported that "Taliban attacks in three provinces across northern Afghanistan since Tuesday killed at least 17 people, including six civilians, and wounded scores of others even as a Taliban political team was negotiating peace with Afghan government representatives in Doha, Qatar."

Sept. 18, 2020 - At a press conference, Trump says, "We're dealing very well with the Taliban. They're very tough, they're very smart, they're very sharp. But, you know, it's been 19 years, and even they are tired of fighting, in all fairness."

Nov. 16, 2020 - Congressional Republicans, responding to news reports that the Trump administration will rapidly reduce forces in Afghanistan, warn of what Sen. Marco Rubio calls "a Saigon-type of situation" in Afghanistan. "A rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says.

Nov. 17, 2020 - Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller formally announces that the U.S. will reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 2,500 by Jan. 15, 2021.

Jan. 15 - "Today, U.S. force levels in Afghanistan have reached 2,500," Miller, the acting defense secretary, says in a statement. "[T]his drawdown brings U.S. forces in the country to their lowest levels since 2001."

Afghanistan's First Vice President Amrullah Saleh tells the BBC that the Trump administration made too many concessions to the Taliban. "I am telling [the United States] as a friend and as an ally that trusting the Taliban without putting in a verification mechanism is going to be a fatal mistake," Saleh says, adding that Afghanistan leaders warned the U.S. that "violence will spike" as the 5,000 Taliban prisoners were released. "Violence has spiked," he added.

www.factcheck.org

Sure Tony. Harris/Biden were powerless against Trump. That's some legacy for Harris to run on.

Trump Stopped Going to Dover AFB To Receive Bodies After Getting Berated On First Visit

www.huffpost.com

What a loser.

Harris/Biden were powerless against Trump.

Funny how Visitor doesn't link Mike Pence to anything that happened when he was VP, but all of a sudden, EVERY DECISION that President Biden made is now the fault of VP Harris.

That dog simply doesn't hunt. VPs work FOR the President, not for their own political futures. Everyone with 2 functioning brain cells understands that. VPs are literal Tammy Wynettes - they all Stand By (Their) Man come hell or high water. VPs have no constitutional power outside of presiding over the Senate and casting tie-breaking votes when necessary.

And Pence stands as the perfect sycophantic example. He does few of the deviant things that Trump does, and no one tries to tie him personally to anything Trump said out of abject ignorance or stupidity.

Gaslight all you want. Trump's own NSA Gen. McMaster blames him for what happened in Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal.

Retired Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, a former national security adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, says Trump bears at least some of the blame for the botched U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

McMaster, who was Trump's top national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018, told CNN's Anderson Cooper during an interview on Monday night that his former boss was partly responsible for the debacle because he had decided to negotiate with the Taliban on terms of a withdrawal.

"Oh, yes," McMaster said after being asked by Cooper if Trump bears "part of the responsibility for what happened." McMaster then added, "The whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan...why the heck were we even doing that?"

"The Obama administration didn't negotiate with al-Qaeda and Iraq on the way out," he continued. "If we were gonna leave, why not just leave? What happened in these series of negotiations is we kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out... then forced them to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on the earth."

In attempting to lay all of the blame for the withdrawal's aftermath at the feet of Biden - and now often Harris, this year's Democratic presidential nominee - Republicans rarely mention Trump's role in negotiating the withdrawal plan.

While the withdrawal was taking place, the Republican National Committee scrubbed its website of content that previously praised the former president's "historic peace agreement with the Taliban."

www.newsweek.com

Looks like the RNC "cut and run" from their rosy analysis of Trump's peace agreement, eh?

So Biden/Harris knew it was a bad plan and intentionally left Americans and allies behind or Biden/Harris were too incompetent to recognize it was a poor plan. Either way Harris/Biden were too inept to improvise when things went ---- up.

Either way Harris/Biden were too inept to improvise when things went ---- up

Spoken like a true ignoramus. Once Trump had moved US military out of Afghanistan and given up bases and resources, just how could Biden improvise the manpower needed for proper security? There was no way for the US to reintroduce a couple thousand troops back into Afghanistan after the infrastructure to do so was gone due to Trump's orders.

What you're claiming is akin to saying "Why didn't Biden stick the pin back into the grenade before it went off?"

The answer is Trump handed the pin to the Taliban when he forced the release of 5000 prisoners who swelled the ranks of Taliban fighters who overran the Afghan government in record speed. Short of recommitting to US soldiers fighting and dying for another decade, just what tangible action would you have recommended Biden do?

Give us your solution Nostradumbass.

#45

You have to post the actual copy for Trumpers because they never link to anything that disabuses them of the groupthink narrative.

FTA:

Trump has traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware exactly four times - fewer than half as many times as his vice president - and avoided going at all for nearly two years after getting berated for his incompetence by the father of a slain Navy SEAL, according to a former White House aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bill Owens, the father of William "Ryan" Owens, refused to shake Trump's hand at that Feb. 1, 2017, encounter, the aide said, and then told Trump that he was responsible for his son's death for approving the disastrous raid in Yemen without bothering to understand the risks.

"He refused to go back for two years, he was so rattled," the aide said, adding that the main reason Trump had approved the raid just five days after taking office was that predecessor Barack Obama had refused to do so.

What's more, Trump made the decision at a social dinner that included his son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, and then-chief strategist Stephen Bannon, rather than his National Security Council staff.

"You can count on one hand the number of times Donald Trump has been to Dover," said Jon Soltz, chairman of the progressive political group VoteVets and an Iraq War veteran. "There simply is no bottom when it comes to what he'll lie about. I wish there was more outrage about Trump lying about the dignified transfer of the fallen for political reasons, because as a veteran it really disgusts me."

www.huffpost.com

And just what did Trump do after his tragic decision on Yemen? He blamed the military for its failed plans.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that last month's deadly commando raid in Yemen, which led to the death of Navy SEAL William Ryan Owens, was planned by military officials before he came into office.

"Well, this was a mission that was started before I got here," the president said on "Fox and Friends." "This was something that was, you know, just they wanted to do. They came to see me they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected."

"My generals are the most respected that we've had in many decades, I believe, and they lost Ryan," Trump added, saying that the buck stops "before I got here."

www.nbcnews.com

So Biden shouldn't be judged by Trump's own metrics. Glad we've got that naked hypocrisy covered now. Nothing like political opportunism, is there?

Once Trump had moved US military out of Afghanistan and given up bases and resources, just how could Biden improvise the manpower needed for proper security? There was no way for the US to reintroduce a couple thousand troops back into Afghanistan after the infrastructure to do so was gone due to Trump's orders.

Trumps exit plan was a poison pill. Like so many of lame duck his policies.

We will never know how many American lives were saved by the sacrifice of those who died ending this disaster. A disaster that was in the making years before Biden came to power.

But I can guarantee Trumpy will callously stoop to using their dead bodies a as political fodder to try and smear Biden and Harris in order to gain power and stay out of jail.

Let me re-highlight something Trump said regarding his role in Navy Seal Bill Owens' death:

"My generals are the most respected that we've had in many decades, I believe, and they lost Ryan ... saying that the buck stops "before I got here."

In my entire 64 years on this Earth, I cannot recall a single President from either party publicly blaming his subordinates when his own direct orders led to the death of U.S. personnel, be they military or civilian.

Every President has openly adopted the ethos behind Harry Truman's time-honored desk plate - The Buck Stops Here - except for one. Trump has abdicated any right to criticize what another President had happen under their orders after his own Profiles in Anti-Courage deflection of the blame that completely lies with him and him alone - as it does with all U.S. Presidents, past and present.

Excuse me. The Seal's name was William "Ryan" Owens, and his father is Bill Owens as I miswrote above.

No disrespect intended.

Except Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Harris/Biden all spent most of their terms blamming the previous president.

Barack Obama and Harris/Biden all spent most of their terms blamming the previous president.

#53 | Posted by visitor

Their predecessors were Failures.

and Harris/Biden all spent most of their terms blamming the previous president.

#53 | POSTED BY VISITOR_

It's perfectly ok to complain about the incompetence of the criminally negligent Previous Guy if you have the best legislation record of any administration since LBJ.

They were told it was a crime and then went ahead and did it anyhow. You know what? Arrest everybody that was with Trump that day including the scumbags and thought it would be okay to pose for photos with Graves of people they didn't even know.

@#56 ... They were told it was a crime and then went ahead and did it anyhow. ...

Amazing, isn't it?

Kamala Harris
@KamalaHarris
x.com

... As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.

It is not a place for politics.

And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump's team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.

This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members "suckers" and "losers" and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients.

A man who, during a previous visit to the cemetery, reportedly said of fallen service members, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

This is a man who is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.

If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.

And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.

I will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America's fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms. I mourn them and salute them. And I will never politicize them.
12:14 PM Aug 31, 2024
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