posted August 29, 2024 10:35 AM            

Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country; 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.

In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign's spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: "We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.

"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," Cheung said in the statement.

The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available. On Wednesday the campaign released a video on TikTok that includes Trump's Section 60 visit.

Late Tuesday night, President Trump posted a photo on social media of the Gold Star families who had invited him. In the post, the families thanked the president and said they had invited the campaign to film in Section 60. But filming there would still contravene federal law, "which prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within the cemeteries.

At a campaign event Wednesday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance dismissed the story, saying, “The altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.” Vance went on to add that, “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.”

In a statement to NPR on Tuesday, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed."

"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 partisan political candidate's campaign," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."