House Democrats ask Army for report on Arlington incident involving Trump campaign staff

Democratic lawmakers with the House Overside Committee sent a letter Friday to the U.S. Army requesting a report into an altercation earlier this week involving an Arlington National Cemetery employee and Trump staff who brought campaign photographers to the cemetery.

In the letter, the committee’s ranking member, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth that he was “hopeful you can provide the Committee with a full account” of Monday’s incident.

Former President Donald Trump visited the cemetery to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate three years since the 2021 Kabul suicide bombing that killed 13 service members during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The confrontation occurred when Trump’s campaign brought its own photographers to Section 60 of the cemetery, where veterans of the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried.

While the exact details remain unclear, an Army spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News Thursday that the employee was “abruptly pushed aside,” calling it “unfortunate” that the “employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”

The cemetery said in a statement this week that “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.”

In his letter, Raskin wrote that “it appears that the Trump campaign refused to abide by Arlington National Cemetery’s absolute prohibition,” and cited Arlington’s guidelines prohibiting “filming for partisan, political, or fundraising purposes” under the Hatch Act.  

Defense officials previously told CBS News that some staff with the Trump campaign were unprofessional and were aggressive both verbally and physically toward the cemetery official. 

“ANC conducts nearly 3,000 such public ceremonies a year without incident,” the Army spokesperson said in the statement. “Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.” 

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has insisted that it was given express permission by Gold Star families to bring “campaign designated media.” Messages reviewed by CBS News verified this claim.

A Trump campaign spokesperson also said that “there was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”

Raskin also cited an apology issued by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who attended the ceremony with Trump and posted several photos of the event to his official social media accounts.

“This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign,” Cox wrote in a social media post Wednesday. “It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology.”

Raskin called on the Army to provide an “incident report” and “a briefing,” and requested that Wormuth respond by Sept. 9. 

contributed to this report.