Utah Governor Apologizes for Campaign Email with Trump Arlington Photo: ‘Should Not Have Been Sent’

Screenshot from Spencer Cox campaign email

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox issued an apology Friday for an email sent out by his campaign that used a photo from former President Donald Trump’s controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump has been under intense scrutiny over photographs and video taken on Monday in Section 60 of the cemetery, where veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. His campaign has argued that they had the permission of the Gold Star families who were accompanying the president. Trump’s critics have pointed out that the families of the other veterans whose graves are in the immediate vicinity — and were involuntarily included in the campaign photo op — did not give their consent. Either way, federal law does not allow photos or video to be taken in Section 60 to be used for partisan campaign purposes.

Cox’s campaign sent out an email Wednesday using the above photo from the Arlington visit, along with a message that said that he and Trump “had the profound honor of standing alongside the family” of a service member from Utah who was among the 13 U.S. service members killed in the Abbey Gate bombing during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The email continued by encouraging readers to “remember the fallen” and “take a moment to reflect on their sacrifice” for the “13 individuals” who “gave their lives so that we might live in freedom and peace.”

Alan Wessman , a third party candidate for a Utah County commission seat, tweeted a screenshot of the email he received, noting that Arlington “forbids use of its grounds for political events,” but “[w]hen an event there is billed as a private memorial service but is attended by campaign staff and photographers, and the photos get used in campaign mailers, it’s evidence that it was a campaign event.”

“You are correct, Alan,” Cox replied to Wessman’s tweet. “This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign. It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology.”

Wessman responded to the governor, thanking him for doing “the right thing” — and adding that he believed it was not Cox’s “intention in attending to make it a campaign event, although I suspect it was the intention of some in attendance.”

Trump and his campaign representatives, meanwhile, have continued to take a far more combative tone . The former president attempted to shift blame to the Gold Star parents in an interview Thursday with NBC News’ Dasha Burns and claimed it was a “setup.” Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita tweeted the video again Thursday, along with a caption that stated he was “[r]eposting this to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy,” who had issued a statement defending the Arlington cemetery employee who was reportedly verbally and physically assaulted by Trump campaign staff.