Haberman shares new reporting on Trump's Arlington National Cemetery controversy

brand new reporting from the New York Times tonight. The family of a Green Beret who's buried at Arlington National Cemetery is not happy about Donald Trump's photo op near his gravesite. Maggie Haberman joins us in just a moment. The Trump campaign is defending its decision to film in a restricted section of the cemetery, where soldiers who were recently killed are buried. NPR reports. An official at Arlington tried to stop Trump's team from doing so on Monday, but was then verbally abused and pushed by Trump campaign staff, according to reports. VP candidate JD Vance, though, is blaming the media. It is amazing to me that you have apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody and they have turned the media has turned this into a national news story. Trump's spokesman is blaming the cemetery official, claiming that they tried to physically block campaign staff. We should note that federal law prohibits any campaign or election related activities within Army National military cemeteries. Which is notable because the Trump campaign posted this video on TikTok promoting his visit to the cemetery. We didn't lose one person in a few months, and then they took over that disaster. The leaving of Afghanistan. My source tonight is New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman. So, Maggie, you're reporting this hour a new reaction to that TikTok. We just show. Tell us more about what you're learning. Right. So my colleagues and I have reporting from another family that has a soldier buried in that section 60, which is a very restricted section. It is it is for people, for soldiers who were, who died after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan for the most part. This is a family. Who the soldier in question. He was a master sergeant. Andrew. Marcus. Otto. He died by suicide in in 2020. And he had served multiple tours, combat tours, including in Afghanistan, but not only. And his gravesite was caught in pictures as Trump was posing with the grave site of another sergeant. at the same section. Now that other sergeant's family had indeed said they would like Trump there. As you noted, these these gold star families welcomed him. As you also noted, the rules of the cemetery are that, campaign photography campaign filming is not permitted. you know, photographs that are going to be used for election purposes. And the Marcus auto family certainly was not contacted or asked for this, but his gravestone is now in that TikTok video from behind the Trump, posted on TikTok. He's also the front of the grave site with his name is in pictures that were posted online, with Trump posing with a thumbs up. And, you know, they were very clear, the family in a statement to us that they they really support this other family and other families, that lost people in the ABC eight bombing. during, in Kabul, Afghanistan. but that this is a restricted area and that they would hope that, everyone would be respectful of that. It was a restrained statement, but it was very clearly displeased. Yeah. And what is the Trump campaign saying to this, this family, to your reporting? When we asked them to respond, they would not directly address what the family said. when asked about the TikTok video, they wouldn't address whether they would continue using, the gravestone images. Just saying, something to the effect of, you know, we continue to honor the wishes of the Gold Star families who supported him. The former President Trump being there, which, again, you know, their families are not a monolith, when it comes to military families, when it comes to families connected to any tragedy, people don't see things the same. The broader issue here is there is a federal law in place. And so far, the Trump campaign has yet to provide documentation of its claim that it was permitted to do this. And there was an agreement, right, because Trump's team is suggesting that they actually have video to prove what they say happened, why not release it? I'd like them to rule. I hope they would release it. They should release it if they have. Video suggesting this shows that the confrontation is not as described. They have claimed that they had permission to be there. There is nothing to support that. I want to add one other note, Pam, that was important from our story tonight, which is that we had reporting that the official in question at Arlington Cemetery should file a report. but then she declined to press charges, and military officials said that she was afraid that she was going to be retaliated against by Trump supporters. It's worth noting that the Trump campaign targeted her, suggesting she was having a mental health episode. Well, Trump, for his part, also went on a reposting spree today. As I know you've seen Maggie, including one that kind of makes my my stomach feel sick. it involves both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris with a crude sexual reference that suggested that Harris used sexual favors to advance her career. we are not going to show that post. And the Harris campaign responded to all his truth, saying, quote, Donald Trump is out of his mind. But what does this signal to you about Trump's thinking and how Kamala Harris is getting under his skin? Well, there's two things going on, Pam. One is that Trump just likes posting things like this. We have seen him do this for years. This is, you know, not this extreme. This is this is pretty explicit. but he has he has toyed around the edges of this kind of thing for a very long time. And he did something recently, a similar type of, repost. on social media along these lines. So I think part of it is it just plays to what he wants to be talking about and enjoys. Part of it is I think that he believes that this is going to amplify, or people around him believe this will amplify these claims of his and get people talking about them. And that is always the risk in talking about these things is that it does spread it to a broader audience. But I think he has been trying to bait Kamala Harris and her supporters into a fight about race, a fight about gender and that's what this speaks to. And I think that they have, for the most part, ignored it. All right. Maggie Haberman, thank you so much. Catherine. the thing that that struck me here, and that, I'm interested to hear you weigh in on is that there's a family member, so if there are family members who say they invited Trump to do this to come graveside, right. And that that's why it was okay that there were photographers there. However, they clearly don't speak for all family members, people who are buried in in section 60. And there is another family whose, you know, the, the headstone for their loved one was in this photo op, that Trump, took there and, they talked to the New York Times. they say that they fully support another family's quest for answers and accountability about the Afghanistan withdrawal, but, they also, say that according to our conversation with the cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers didn't adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to this other family's gravesite that lies directly next to this is the sister, my brother's grave. We hope that those visiting the sacred site understand these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom. And they're honored and respected, according, respected accordingly. we also we didn't show what J.D. Vance actually said about, Harrison Democratic, criticism here. Let's let's play that, the the rest of his remarks, please, to have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We're going to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives. It's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can she can go to hell. Katherine, what are you hearing about this? again? I my I'm sort of focused on the families here. Yeah. That's right. I mean, there are multiple families who are dealing with this and to are represented in this part of the cemetery and obviously the The New York Times reporting, there were different feelings about this visit. And so that's just a that's a sensitivity that folks have to deal with. And real people are not getting caught up into this sort of political storm around this visit. And, I think you can tell from their comments that that's that's tough for these folks. I mean, stepping back, I mean, this obviously this incident is something I think the the Trump campaign is trying to highlight the the withdrawal, the fallout from withdrawal. They see that as something that's effective for them. but some of the chaos around this visit, I'm not sure how helpful that is to the Trump campaign. I think it's a it's not clear that this is that, that this narrative is helpful as they are trying to sort of drive a more clear message about leadership and accountability here. Yeah. Well, and to the the former president has also made a number of remarks about, Americans who have been killed or wounded, in action that have not been, terribly complimentary. Yeah. So instead of this being a way for the Trump campaign to highlight a problematic occurrence, a problematic event during the Biden administration, which was the Afghanistan withdrawal, which I think is something that is a valid, you know, political point to make as Harris runs for president. Right. But instead of stopping there and making that point, the Trump campaign now has created this narrative that feeds into what people already believe about him, is that not only does he not understand military service, but that he doesn't respect military service. And now that is becoming what we're discussing. Instead of the Afghanistan withdrawal. And that's entirely because of choices made by Donald Trump in his campaign. So even J.D. Vance saying, you know, Kamala Harris can go to hell if she wants to criticize us on that, I think I think he might regret those words because it's not just Kamala Harris or the Harris Walls campaign, or even just Democrats who are criticizing what happened at Arlington National Cemetery, the most famous cemetery in America. It's veterans groups. It's going to be military families, Gold Star families. And will J.D. Vance tell them to go to hell? I think he probably wouldn't, but they're going to be asking him, what does he mean by those comments? It just seems like a very unforced error for what started out as a very valid critique of the Biden-Harris administration.