CrimsonPhantom
CUSA Curator

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RE: Arlington Cemetery (Army) Files Report on trump Campaign Staff
Gold Star families defend Trump and team after media attacks over Arlington memorial for soldiers killed during Biden-Harris Afghanistan withdrawal
Quote:Gold Star family members of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal defended Donald Trump and his designated media team after the team took photos of a ceremony for their deceased children on Monday. The family members told Arlington cemetery officials that they wanted photographs and video at Section 60 during Monday's ceremony.
According to reporting from the Daily Caller as well as a source involved with planning the ceremony who spoke to The Post Millennial, after speaking with the families, Arlington officials claimed that the families did not want photos taken at all. This comes amid a media firestorm surrounding a report from NPR that cited an anonymous source making allegations about the event.
Arlington Cemetery officials claimed that the Gold Star family members did not want any photographs or video taken at Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery during Monday's ceremony when they were working on coordinating the event, according to the reporting as well as the source who spoke to The Post Millennial. This is contrary to TPM's communications with the family members, who said they told Arlington officials during the whole planning process that they wanted and invited Trump's team to videotape and take pictures of the event.
Additionally, TPM reviewed messages from last week, showing that the family members approved photography of the event taken by Trump's designated media team. NPR's piece on the matter made the claim that "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," however, this was disputed by multiple Gold Star family members who had talked to Arlington in planning for the event. The planning took a lot of back and forth leading up to what happened on Monday.
Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Sgt. Nicole Gee, disputed the reporting from NPR. Juels said that Arlington had agreed to allow Trump's designated media team to take the photos. "We wanted to have a recording of this. And we definitely agreed to have Arlington photographers and videographers there. We also agreed, if Trump had his own people there, we agreed to that as well."
Darin Hoover, father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, also said that they invited Trump's media there and when Arlington officials originally talked to him and others that they had requested Trump's team be the ones to take photographs at Section 60. Hoover added that there were "all out blatant lies" coming from NPR about the whole event. “We’re the ones that invited Trump, he didn't invite himself. We’re the ones that invited him," he added.
Kelly Barnett, mother of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover told TPM the same, that they invited Trump’s designated media team and that was the agreement, "That's probably what they [Arlington] wanted, but that's not what was agreed to." She added, "none of us even had our phones out because we knew that it would be taken care of for us."
Barnett added that a leading official at the Arlington Cemetery who stood with Trump at the beginning of the Ceremony had spoken to her and Juels on Sunday while they were planning the event at Section 60. Juels also said that the meeting with an Arlington official took place that day. Barnett said they both relayed to the official that since the mother of Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, Paula, would not be there for the event, they wanted to get good pictures for her.
Knauss was struck that the entire media had gone on attack as they were wanting to get photos of a solemn ceremony for their deceased children, she told TPM. "It's a very political move by cold-blooded people who would actually use our children - in a time of expression by the nation in mourning for them - to use it as a political issue that they want to bring up, that's very offensive to me. Because those who were doing things like placing flowers on their graves or remembering them on the day they were killed, were doing a great thing, a great thing."
Knauss emphasized that Trump and his designated media team were doing something kind, in that they wanted to record the event for her. She added, "This pettiness that I'm finding out about that happened up in Arlington that wants to be a news story is really something that's so sad.”
In regards to the altercation reported by NPR, each Gold Star family member that TPM spoke to who was at the event did not think such an incident happened as reported, with none of them witnessing it. Each also said that NPR did not contact them regarding its report that relied heavily on one anonymous source. Some said they found out about the news report when they got off the plane after flying back to their home states or the next morning. Biden and Harris had both been given notice for the event, but neither showed up.
A New Low: Press Attack Gold Star Families Over Arlington National Cemetery Ceremony to Go After Trump
Quote:In one of the most disgusting press stories I've been privy to, The New York Times published a piece essentially trashing the Gold Star families who invited Donald Trump to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.
As RedState reported, the president appeared at a ceremony honoring the 13 murdered American service members who died during the Abbey Gate Bombing. The devastating event unfolded in August of 2021 amid the Biden-Harris administration's incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris neither showed up for the ceremony nor gave live statements commemorating the third anniversary of the deaths. Instead, the president vacationed on the beach while Harris continued campaigning. That did nothing but underscore the complete lack of accountability stemming from their decision-making.
Yet, instead of focusing on how the service members were killed, the press decided to attack Donald Trump for daring to show up to honor them, claiming he "politicized" the event by taking pictures with the Gold Star families.
That disgusting pursuit reached a new low on Thursday with a story put together by Maggie Haberman in which she used the names on gravestones to mine a quote attacking not just Trump, but the Gold Star families he posed with as well.
Given the families who asked for the picture with Trump lost their loved ones in a brutal suicide bombing that happened because of Biden-Harris incompetence and politicization of the withdrawal, I'm pretty sure they "understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom." To use that quote in this context, ignoring that the people being attacked are themselves Gold Star families is media depravity I'm not sure I've seen before, and that's saying something.
Again, the families involved asked for the cameras to be there to make a record of the ceremony. This isn't a case of Trump randomly deciding to start snapping pictures. How do we know that? Because the Gold Star families put out the following statement.
![[Image: GWJ10lYW0AASrg8?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWJ10lYW0AASrg8?format=jpg&name=small)
What makes this even more ridiculous is that Joe Biden used shots of Arlington National Cemetery and flag-draped caskets in a political ad back in June. You can even see the names on the gravestones in the video with the caption by Biden reading "Donald Trump doesn’t know a damn thing about service to his country."
Did Maggie Haberman and the Times mention that? Did they suggest it broke the rules of politicizing Arlington National Cemetery and the deaths of American service members? Did any reporters call up the families of those whose gravestones were shown? Of course, not.
The moment the Gold Star families said they wanted the cameras there and asked to take pictures with the former president, that should have been the end of it. Instead, the press have done what they always do, which is show themselves to be the lowest of the low. Haberman, the Times, and the rest have now spent more time freaking out over Trump showing up to honor the fallen than they have critiquing those who got them killed. It's deranged.
Joe Biden Got 13 Americans Killed In Afghanistan, But Garbage Media Are Mad At Trump For Mourning With Their Families
Quote:Legacy media have found their latest hoax to run about Donald Trump, and this time it’s to convince you that he hates America’s fallen troops.
The entire non-troversy began earlier this week, when anti-truth NPR ran an anonymously sourced article with claims that members of Trump’s team “had a verbal and physical altercation” with an Arlington National Cemetery official during the former president’s Monday visit. Trump was there at the request of Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed during President Joe Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal three years ago this week.
Rather than probe why both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris only issued meaningless statements and did not visit Arlington to honor the troops who died on their watch, NPR hack-tivists Quil Lawrence and Tom Bowman apparently felt it was their job to run interference for their Democrat allies’ negligence by making Trump’s Arlington visit appear problematic.
The anonymous source cited by the authors allegedly claimed the aforementioned Arlington official “tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried” and that cemetery staff “had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.” The unidentified official further contended members of Trump’s campaign “verbally abused and pushed the official aside.”
The authors attempted to paint the Trump team’s efforts to photograph the commemorations as an “election-related” campaign activity that violates federal law. Funny how neither bothered to raise concerns about Biden using shots of military grave markers in actual political campaign ads.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung rejected the claim there was a physical altercation, telling NPR, “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.”
Of course, nowhere in their article do Lawrence and Bowman indicate if they bothered to reach out to any of the Gold Star families in attendance for comment on the alleged matter. If they had, they might have learned how appreciative these families were for Trump’s attendance and that the former president’s team had their permission to document the event.
In their joint statement, several of the families thanked Trump for appearing at Arlington to honor their loved ones and affirmed the former president and his team “conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members.”
“We had given approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever,” the statement reads.
Darin Hoover, whose son Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover died in Afghanistan, separately confirmed to The Daily Caller it was the Gold Star families who “extended the invitation to President Trump” and “asked him to come.”
“President Trump didn’t come to us. His team didn’t come to us and say, hey, this would be good for business. Business? No. President Trump has stood by us from day one,” Hoover said. “He has been compassionate. He has been loving. He’s been understanding. He’s taking the mantle of our outrage a little bit. Because to be quite honest with you, being very frank, we haven’t heard diddly squat from the current administration in three years.”
While the NPR hit piece bears similar hallmarks to The Atlantic’s debunked “suckers” and “losers” hoax, that didn’t stop left-wing propaganda outlets from rushing to regurgitate the outlet’s hit piece in an attempt to smear Trump. New York Times “reporters” Chris Cameron, Maggie Haberman, and Eric Schmitt took their Democrat activism a step further by seemingly calling up members of Gold Star families whose loved ones’ gravestones appeared in photographs of Monday’s commemorations.
The media’s gambit could not be more obvious. They are attempting to create a nonexistent controversy based on the bogus notion that Trump disdains America’s troops. The truth is that they are more outraged about Trump honoring these 13 heroes’ memories than they are Biden’s role in their deaths or his continued neglect of their families.
If only these same defenders of “democracy” bothered to care as much about the fact that those 13 lives never made it home.
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