Vice presidential candidate Ohio Senator JD Vance downplayed reports about two Donald Trump staff members who got into an altercation with an Arlington Cemetery official earlier in the week.
Trump visited the cemetery on Monday to pay tribute to the anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan. NPR reported that two members of Trump’s campaign staff got into a “verbal and physical altercation” with a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing. The Arlington Cemetary also released a statement Tuesday stating that there had been an incident involving members of Trump’s team during the event, and a defense official told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the former president’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation occurring during the ceremony.
While fielding reporters’ questions at a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Vance that he believed “the media creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one.”
“There is there is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there. There’s verifiable they were invited to have a photographer there. There’s verifiable evidence that the families of these poor people who had their loved ones die three years ago…they invited [Trump] to be there and to support them,” Vance continued.
“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,” he added later on.
Ohio Senator JD Vance speaks in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 20, 2024.
Andy Manis/Getty Images
This is a developing story. It will be updated as information becomes available
