‘Deeply offensive’: Retired General reacts to Trump’s Arlington Cemetery controversy

The Trump campaign is facing backlash for an apparent altercation at Arlington National Cemetery between the Trump team and cemetery staff. The former president was in Arlington on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Abbey gate bombing, when 13 U.S. service members died in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to NPR. While their Trump campaign staff verbally abused and pushed a cemetery official. When the official tried to prevent the Trump campaign from filming in section 60, which is a section of the cemetery reserved for those recently killed in America's wars abroad. Arlington National Cemetery confirmed the incident, telling CNN, quote, federal law prohibits political, campaign or election related activities within Army national military cemeteries to include photographers, content creators, or any other persons attending for purposes or in direct support of a Partizan political candidates campaign. The Trump campaign says an unnamed individual did block members of Trump's team, but denies a physical altercation occurred, and they claim to have video to back up their account. However, they have not released that video. Trump has, however, posted a video from his visit online in which he criticizes the Afghanistan withdrawal under under President Biden. We didn't lose one person in 18 months, and then they took over that disaster. The leaving of Afghanistan. Joining me now is retired Army general and former NATO's Supreme Allied commander, Wesley Clark. sir, I just wonder what you make of this news and of this alleged altercation. Well, I think it's totally, inappropriate that, Donald Trump has used that part of Arlington Cemetery that way for a Partizan political purpose. But it's deeper than that. First of all, we know that in private. He doesn't respect service. He doesn't respect sacrifice. He's never done it for anybody. And, and so this was a stunt. And it's particularly distasteful for those of us who've lost friends in these conflicts to see this kind of manipulation on a Arlington National Cemetery. That's how lower ground for us. And he should know better. But for president, former President Trump, any things that can help him, that's what he wants. That's the only service he's ever been in service to is his own benefit here. So it's deeply offensive. And it doesn't really matter whether there was a physical altercation or not. He was told not to do it. So we don't want to get distracted by whether there's some tape that shows there was a push or somebody put their hands up. It was wrong to do this. He should apologize to the national veterans community and the families. I wonder how you make sense of kind of two different things, which is, yes, we know that in private. He's referred to people who have died in war as suckers and losers. and that's really just the beginning of a long list of things. He didn't want to be pictured with veterans who were wounded. But then you have families of these 13, largely, who feel seen by former President Trump, and they do not feel seen by the Biden administration. That's very clear when you talk to a lot of them, we had Paula Canal self on yesterday. She's the mother of Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Christian, canals, who died at Abbey gate. and then on the other hand, you have this sacred space right where so many service members are buried beyond these 13 and there are rules, so that their memory is not a political tool. How do you make sense of of these competing interests? So I would say there's no problem if the family members want to endorse President Trump. That's perfectly what's in there, right? After all, we had a gold star father, endorse President Biden and criticize President Trump. And, he came on again in the Democratic National Convention. this is man Khizr Khan. So, fine, civilians are allowed to endorse anybody they want, but not to use that portion of Arlington National Cemetery for Partizan political purposes. They didn't have the right to use it for Partizan political purposes, and neither does Donald Trump. And, Trump attacked Mr. Khan as well as his wife, who appeared it at the convention, years ago. So how should the campaign have comported itself? It could have, he could have done the same thing with, was a tweet, but not in Arlington National Cemetery. If he wants to attack, President Biden, if he wants to attack the Afghan withdrawal, remember, he's the one who set it up. He's the one who ordered the negotiation. He's the one who ordered the release of 5000 Taliban. He's the one who said to our military, we can't accompany the Afghans on combat missions. So we didn't get the correct information. So he has, significant responsibility for the outcome of this? he's not blameless on this, but if he wants to use it in politics, that's his right. But not at Arlington National Cemetery. Yeah, certainly. There's a lot of blame and many critics of of Biden's as well when it comes to the withdrawal. But I do I do wonder sort of just broadly, if you can speak to this, this really comes down to the politicization of the military specifically, in this case, we're talking about those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. What do you wish people would understand about why that matters so much? This country has been formed and sustained by the sacrifices of men and women in uniform, and for years there was conscription, there was a draft, and every American had an obligation to serve since the 1970s. That's not the case. These men or women who've died since, or people who volunteered every American should feel, in my view, an obligation to serve the country. Most don't. but they certainly those sacrifices certainly shouldn't be politicized and by either side. You know, there's been a long effort after the Vietnam War by the Republican Party to take over and get support from the military. The Democrats were the ones trying to cut the military budget. But Donald Trump hasn't been particularly kind to the military. And if you talk to any of the senior officers who served anywhere near Donald Trump, they don't water main office again. And if you talk to the people on the National Security Council staff, they'll tell you not only is he sort of bumbling and incoherent at times, but he's a security risk. Look at the secret documents he took. You know, those of us who served in military, we all had our security clearances. We all did everything to protect the country. And part of that was protecting the secret intelligence. And then Donald Trump stole it. And now we've got a court case on it. So I think if you look at the big picture, you have to see what's happened here. The military shouldn't be in the political limelight. we're going to serve whoever the elected president is, and we're going to obey all legal orders in support of the Constitution. It's about, you know, protecting and defending the Constitution. But he's the commander in chief, whoever he or she is. So we're going to keep the military, especially those in uniform, out of the political business. General Wesley Clark, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it. Thank you. Brianna.