Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump places his hands over his heart after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in honour of the 13 service members killed at Abbey Gate, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. (Image: AP Photo)
Hillary Trump asked users on social media if they have come across any candidate who, according to her, has shown much disrespect to US Army veterans.
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Wednesday took to social media to lash out at former US president and her once-rival Donald Trump after his campaign team members clashed with an official at Arlington National Cemetery.
Arlington National Cemetery honours US military service members and is the final resting place of nearly 400,000 people. It is one of the two cemeteries in the United States National Cemetery System that are maintained by the United States Army.
“Has any presidential candidate shown less respect to our veterans than Donald Trump?” the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, said, referring to the altercation that was first reported by NPR.
The altercation occurred when a photographer was spotted in a section of the cemetery where American soldiers killed in recent wars are buried, according to Trump campaign officials. The cemetery later issued a statement emphasising that federal law prohibits political campaigning or any election-related activities, including photography, within Army cemeteries.
A cemetery official attempted to “physically block” members of Trump’s team, according to campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. Cheung claimed the official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” and said that the Trump campaign was ready to release footage to back their version of the incident.
The New York Times said the Trump campaign did not share the footage.
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser for Trump’s campaign, separately stated that the cemetery official was “a disgrace” and unfit to represent the “hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery”.
Arlington officials have not provided their account of the clash. They have said that “there was an incident, and a report was filed”.
“There was an incident, and a report was filed. To protect the identity of the individual involved, no further information about the incident is being released at this time,” a spokesperson for the cemetery said.
The cemetery added that it had “reinforced and widely shared” to the Trump campaign the federal laws prohibiting campaign activities by photographers “or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”
