WASHINGTON: US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday criticised her Republican presidential rival Donald Trump over a visit he made to soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery that was later used in a campaign video.
“This is a solemn place, a place where we gather to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to this nation. This is not a place for politics,” Harris wrote in an X post.
The vice president spoke five days after Trump on Monday participated in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
He also visited Section 60 of the Virginia cemetery, which the military considers a sacred site. Federal law and Pentagon policies do not allow political activities in that section, but the Trump campaign posted a TikTok video with images from the cemetery as he faces off against Democrat Harris in a tight race for the White House.
Trump's visit sparked criticism from some veterans and family members of soldiers. On Friday, the U.S. military defended a cemetery employee who was placed in Section 60, saying she acted professionally and was being unfairly targeted.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all in order to accomplish a political stunt,” Harris wrote.
During a speech in Pennsylvania on Friday, Trump said the families of service members killed in Afghanistan had asked him to go to Arlington National Cemetery.
“I came in and we had a ceremony,” Trump said. Families asked if he could go to the graves, Trump said, and then asked for a photo. “I said, 'Of course.' So I was taking pictures at the gravesite,” he said.
On Saturday, Trump launched a concerted response, posting videos on his Truth Social account showing relatives of at least seven of the 13 killed in the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan defending their actions at the cemetery. Many of them addressed Harris directly and questioned her stated support for military families.
“Vice President Harris, why don't you express your condolences yourself? Why have we never heard from you?” asks Christy Shamblin, mother-in-law of Sergeant Nicole Gee, who was among those killed in the 2021 retreat, in a video.
Trump's vice presidential nominee JD Vance and press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Harris's post on Saturday with one that referenced the withdrawal from Afghanistan and accused Harris of being insensitive to service members who died there.
Trump on Monday used the third anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to try to blame his vice president for the chaotic withdrawal under President Joe Biden.
The vice president's response to Trump's visit to the cemetery may provide a clue as to how she will approach the issue in their Sept. 10 debate. She referred to Trump's history of insulting military veterans.
“This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen military 'losers' and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients,” he wrote.
Trump once said the late Sen. John McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate, was not a war hero even though he spent years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after being shot down while a Navy pilot.
Trump referred to fallen World War I veterans as “losers” and called them other profanities, according to his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general. Trump continues to deny that report.
It was unclear whether such incidents would influence veterans' votes. In an April report, the Pew Research Center found that military veterans favor the Republican Party.
