Army defends employee's conduct, disputes Trump's Arlington Cemetery claims

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army on Thursday disputed claims made by the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about the nature of an apparent altercation involving a staffer at Arlington National Cemetery .

In a statement distributed to media outlets , an Army spokesperson said Trump campaign members "abruptly pushed aside" a cemetery staff member who was trying to stop the filming of the former president's visit to Arlington's Section 60 on Monday for political purposes, an activity prohibited by federal law.

The statement, a rare instance in which the U.S. military has commented on a political matter, comes as a rebuke to claims made by a Trump campaign spokesman that the cemetery employee had assaulted them and was "suffering from a mental health episode" while insisting the campaign broke no rules.

However, the Army spokesman said the Trump campaign "were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.

"An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside."

National Public Radio reported Tuesday that, as Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony marking the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country, a cemetery official tried to prevent campaign staff from entering Section 60, where many U.S. personnel who died in the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns are buried.

Trump has repeatedly tried to tie his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris , to the deaths of 13 soldiers during the 2021 withdrawal while blaming her and President Joe Biden for a "collapse of American credibility and respect" in Afghanistan.

A source told the broadcaster campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the female official aside -- a version of events the Army confirmed Thursday,

"This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked," the Army statement read. "ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation's fallen deserve."

The statement added that the incident was reported to the police department at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, but the employee has "decided not to press charges" and the Army "considers this matter closed."

The Trump campaign on Wednesday posted video of his Arlington visit on TikTok in apparent violation of federal laws against using military cemeteries for campaigning purposes.

Meanwhile, fallout from the Arlington incident spread further Thursday when The Hill reported that users of X, formerly Twitter, who tried to access a link to NPR's original story from the platform were instead taken to a warning page that reads "this may be unsafe."

X users began to notice the diversion to the warning page on Thursday. Such warnings are usually meant to protect users from malicious links, such as those containing malicious code or spam, but in this case suspicions were raised that X owner Elon Musk , a supporter of Trump's, was taking steps to prevent the Arlington story from spreading.

NPR told The Hill it had changed the story's URL when it noticed the blockage and indicated it had heard from X the warning page was a "false positive" that has been corrected.