‘Unfairly attacked’: Army defends Arlington National Cemetery employee involved in Trump incident
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(WASHINGTON) — The Arlington National Cemetery staffer who tried to stop the Trump campaign from filming a video among the graves of recently fallen service members has declined to press charges, according to a statement released Thursday by the Army that said the “employee and her professionalism was unfairly attacked.”
The updated statement also defended the actions of the employee, who the military has opted not to name publicly due to privacy and safety concerns.
“This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” according to the statement.
The Army said the incident was reported to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia, which has jurisdiction over the cemetery, “but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed.”
“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” the Army continued. “ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”
Trump campaign’s communications director, Steven Cheung, has said his team was given permission to have an official photographer and videographer outside the main press pool.
According to the Army statement, public wreath laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are routinely allowed. However, it said participants from Trump’s campaign were told in advance there should be no photography or video taken in “Section 60,” where recently fallen service members are buried.
Federal law prohibits campaigns from using the military cemetery for political campaigning or election-related activities.
Virginia Democrat Rep. Gerry Connolly has called for the public release of the police report with the names redacted.
“The public has a right to know. It must be released protecting the staffers’ identities,” he said.
In response to the Army statement, Cheung said, “This employee was the one who initiated physical and verbal contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary.”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim. Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz participate in the Vice Presidential debate in New York City, October 1, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz met on stage Tuesday for what was likely the last debate of the 2024 presidential election.
The two vice presidential candidates struck a cordial tone as they spoke in-depth about everything from immigration to health care and democracy.
Looming large over the showdown was Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, as Walz and Vance were forced to answer for their running mates’ records while also presenting their own visions for the future.
Here are some key takeaways from the CBS News debate:
Civility ruled the day
While Walz and Vance sparred on issues, they did so with decorum and largely steered clear of the personal attacks that defined the past two presidential debates.
They started off by shaking hands and ended the night with closing statements in which they thanked each other and the American people for tuning in. As one commercial break came to a close, they were seen smiling at each other.
At times, they tried to highlight areas where they might be in agreement. In one exchange on gun violence, Walz spoke about his son witnessing a shooting at a local recreation center.
“First of all, I didn’t know your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting and I’m sorry about that,” Vance said, to which Walz said he appreciated the comment.
At other times they were more pointed, though, especially when it came to immigration and democracy. Walz said he was troubled by Vance’s indirect response when asked if he’d challenge the results of the 2024 election.
A more policy-focused debate
Viewers got to hear several substantive policy exchanges.
On health care, Vance was pressed on Trump’s comment that he only had “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act and how their administration would protect people with preexisting conditions.
“We have current laws and regulations to protect people with pre-existing conditions and want to keep the regulations in place and help the insurance marketplace function a little better,” Vance said though he did not dive into specifics.
He also distorted many of Trump’s actions on the ACA and claimed Trump made the law stronger, which was false.
Walz was asked about Harris’ plan to build three million new homes (which he argued would not drive up prices and would lead to generational wealth) and whether he believed it was likely Congress would agree to her proposal for an enhanced Child Tax Credit. He said both high housing and child care costs were the biggest burdens on American families.
Amid the devastating damage from Hurricane Helene, both were asked if climate change was contributing to such extreme weather events. Walz emphatically said climate change was “real” while Vance expressed skepticism about “weird science,” stating carbon emissions were contributing to the climate crisis.
In one notable moment on abortion, Vance adopted a different tone from the one he and Trump have voiced in the past.
“We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us and I think that’s one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do,” he said.
At the same time, he claimed during the debate that he never supported a national abortion ban, despite previously signaling support for a bill introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that would ban abortion after 15 weeks nationwide.
Walz, meanwhile, spoke about the women whose health has been negatively impacted by state-level restrictions since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Walz blamed Trump for the Supreme Court nominations he said “put this all into motion.”
Both forced to answer for past comments
For Vance, it was his calling Trump unfit to be president and likening him to Hitler in 2016. The moderator addressed Vance about his past criticisms of Trump and his shifts in policy to align with the former president’s, asking why should Americans trust that he will give Trump the advice he needs to hear.
“Because I’ve always been open and sometimes, of course, I’ve disagreed with the president, but I’ve also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance said.
Vance blamed the media for its coverage of Trump and then said he changed his mind in part because of Trump’s record in office.
Walz, meanwhile, was asked why he previously said he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
The governor has repeatedly claimed he was in China during the protests during his year-long stint as a high school teacher in the southeastern Chinese town of Foshan starting in 1989, though according to local newspaper clipping obtained by ABC News, it appears he did not actually travel to the country until August 1989, about two months after the protests ended.
Asked about that discrepancy during the debate, Walz said that he’s “a knucklehead at times” and that his extensive travel to China “is about trying to understand the world, it’s about trying to do the best you can for the community.”
When pressed by the moderator further, he conceded that he “misspoke” and that he was in Hong Kong the year of the massacre but not at the time it happened.
Vance refused to say if he will accept election, doesn’t condemn Jan. 6
As the debate winded down, Vance was asked if he would seek to challenge the 2024 election even if every governor certified the results. However, the senator sidestepped the question and pivoted to what he claimed was Harris and tech companies censoring people. He also brought up the endorsements of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.
Walz said he was troubled by Vance’s statement and said such denials needed to come to an end.
“Here we are, four years later, in the same boat. I will tell you, that when this is over, we need to shake hands, this election, and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop. It’s tearing our country apart,” the governor said.
Walz continued to deflect from the question and at one point attacked Hillary Clinton.
“Did he lose the 2020 election?” Walz asked Vance, referring to Trump.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance responded.
“That is a damning non-answer,” Walz shot back.
Vance did not back down on false claims about Springfield
The ongoing controversy stemming from Vance’s false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, continued when Walz talked about the dangers it created for the community.
“The governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartens to school. I believe Senator Vance wants to solve this but by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point. And when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings,” he said.
Local leaders and law enforcement have said there have been no valid reports of the Haitian immigrants stealing pets or spreading diseases that Vance has promoted. Vance did not promote those falsehoods on Tuesday but did continue to call the protected migrants with legal status “illegal.”
Vance also reiterated his claims that undocumented immigrants are contributing to a housing crisis and leading to a rise in crime.
“The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’s open border,” he said.
Vance got heated when CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan again brought up the fact that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were in the U.S. legally by being granted Temporary Protected Status.
As Vance tried to dispute her statement — and went back and forth with her and with Walz, the moderators said they needed to move on to the next topic before resorting to muting the candidates’ microphones.
In this Jan. 19, 2024, file photo, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan attends Indigenous House: Sundance Film Festival 2024 in Park City, Utah. (Natasha Campos/Getty Images for IllumiNative)
(WASHINGTON) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate on Tuesday — a choice that could potentially usher in a historic first.
If Harris and Walz win, prompting Walz to resign as governor, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would take over the position, according to Minnesota’s constitution — and would become the first Native American woman to ever serve as a state governor.
She would also be the first woman to serve as governor of Minnesota in the state’s history.
Flanagan, 44, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is “currently the country’s highest ranking Native woman elected to executive office,” according to a biography on her office’s website. She was first elected to the lieutenant governorship in 2018.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Flanagan celebrated the news Walz had been selected as the vice presidential nominee.
“I’ve been friends with Tim Walz for almost 20 years. And for more than five years, he’s been my partner in justice at the Minnesota Capitol,” she wrote. “He has the grit and the grace to keep our country moving forward alongside Kamala Harris.”
As lieutenant governor, Flanagan worked with Walz and other members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to pass a laundry list of progressive legislation — including free school breakfasts and lunches, paid family and medical leave, legalizing marijuana, codifying abortion access and enacting stricter firearms laws — in what Walz called “the most productive session in Minnesota history,” according to the Star Tribune.
She also created the the country’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, co-chairs Minnesota’s Young Women’s Initiative and chairs the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Flanagan was first elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education in 2004. An experienced organizer, she spent nearly a decade training progressive candidates on how to effectively run for public office — among those candidates was Walz himself.
She also served as executive director of the Minnesota branch of youth advocacy nonprofit Children’s Defense Fund, during which time she successfully campaigned to raise the statewide minimum wage.
Flanagan went on to serve in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where she led the Subcommittee on Child Care Access and Affordability and cofounded the state’s first People of Color and Indigenous Caucus.
Born and raised by a single mother in St. Louis Park, Flanagan still lives in the Minnesota city with her husband Tom, daughter Siobhan and dog, Reuben.
There have been two Native American men elected to be governor — Johnston Murray and Kevin Stitt, both in Oklahoma. Stitt is the current governor of Oklahoma.
In an interview with The 19th, Flanagan previously reflected on what her heritage meant to her as a public servant.
“I couldn’t have ever imagined being able to see elected leaders who look like me. And for my daughter, this is simply her reality,” she said. “That is how we build a strong organization. That is how we build a strong party.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former first lady Melania Trump described the July 13 assassination attempt on her husband, former President Donald Trump, as “a horrible, distressing experience” in a new video.
She also questioned official accounts of the security failure at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally, suggesting there’s “more to this story.”
Melania Trump has been posting videos defending her husband ahead of tonight’s presidential debate as a part of her promotional campaign for her forthcoming memoir, titled “Melania.”
“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” Melania Trump said in the short video, posted Tuesday morning on X. “Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?”
“There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth,” she continued.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter. Crooks, who also shot and killed a spectator at the rally and injured two others, was killed at the scene.
In an Aug. 28 media call, Kevin P. Rojek, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, said that their investigation to that point had provided “valuable insight into [Crooks’] mindset, but not a definitive motive” for the shooting.
“To date, we have not uncovered any credible evidence indicating the subject conspired with anyone else,” Rojek also said, adding that the FBI will “continue to pursue all investigative leads to determine any possible links to co-conspirators.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt, resigned her position on July 23.
In an audio clip posted to X on Monday, the former first lady described how the 2020 election “changed” some people’s lives forever, and said that there are “efforts to silence” her husband.
“The 2020 election results changed our lives forever. It impacted our quality of life, cost of food, gasoline, safety, and even the geopolitical landscape,” Melania Trump said. “America is more divided today than ever before. It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech, as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband.”
Both the video and the audio clip end with promotional messaging for her memoir and where to order the book.
In yet another video posted last week on X, Melania Trump described the experience of writing the memoir as a “deeply personal and reflective journey.”
“As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts. I believe it is important to share my perspective, the truth,” Trump said.
Melania Trump’s memoir, which she began promoting in July, is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
“The former First Lady invites readers into her world, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life,” and includes “stories and images never before shared with the public,” the according to the website.
“Melania” is available in three editions ranging in cost from $40 to $250 for a signed, expanded “collector’s edition.”
