When Gold Star families were planning to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan with a ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, two names were not on the invitation list — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
That’s according to a White House official and a Harris aide, per NBC News. This is in contrast to separate claims made Sunday by Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
One name on the invite list was Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose presence has been criticized after he posed last Monday for photos with Gold Star families in a section of the cemetery where photos are traditionally prohibited.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Trump’s visit was a “personal invitation by families.”
“There are many ways that we as a nation and our leaders can observe the third anniversary of Abbey Gate,” Kirby said. “Another way is to continue to work, maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of public attention, maybe not with TV cameras, but to work every single day to make sure that the families of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded — not just at Abbey Gate but over the course of the 20-some-odd years that we were in Afghanistan — have the support that they need.”
The Army accused a member of Trump’s campaign staff of “abruptly push[ing] aside” a cemetery staff member who was trying to enforce the restrictions on taking photos and video at the location.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC, Cotton said, “These families, Gold Star families, whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ incompetence invited [Trump] to the cemetery and they asked him to take those photos. … You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, D.C.”
Gabbard, a former Democratic representative from Hawaii, talked on Sunday, saying “President Biden and Harris, I heard, were invited by some of these family members. They not only didn’t come; they didn’t even respond to that invitation.”
Trump told NBC News Thursday that a Gold Star family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”
He added, “While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, ‘Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?’”
Trump’s campaign then posted a TikTok video of the ceremony. Trump’s campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita posted a video on X of Trump laying flowers at a grave.
“Well, we have a lot of people … TikTok people,” Trump said, defending the post.
“I don’t know who did it, and it could have been them. It could have been the parents. It could have been somebody,” he said.
During a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump said,” Joe Biden killed those young people because he was incompetent. And then they tell me that I use their graves for public relations services, and I didn’t.”
Trump took to X on Saturday night, posting multiple videos of relatives of killed service members defending him and criticizing Harris and Biden.
In one video, Darin Hoover said Trump treated the family with the “utmost respect” and asked where Harris and Biden were on “Aug. 26, 2024.”
They were “nowhere near Arlington Cemetery. You couldn’t be bothered to be with us or say our kids’ names,” he said.
In a statement, members of the Gold Star families said they were “appalled” by Harris’ attempts to “politicize” Trump’s visit to the cemetery.
“President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three-year anniversary of our children’s deaths,” according to the statement. “He was there to honor their sacrifice, yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.”
Harris made a statement Saturday, saying Trump “disrespected sacred ground” during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
