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‘Campaign Stunt’: Did Trump Event ‘Desecrating’ Arlington Cemetery Violate Federal Law?

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Donald Trump’s campaign event at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, observing the three-year anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul, Afghanistan airport that killed 13 U.S. service members, may have been in violation of federal regulations, according to a statement reportedly issued by Arlington officials. Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony and visited a sacred portion of the 160-year old cemetery, causing concern among many including some veterans.

During the event a “verbal and physical altercation” between the ex-president’s campaign staff and an Arlington official allegedly occurred.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday, Jonathan Lemire said, “I know a lot of military veterans were very uncomfortable with the idea that Trump was there at all.”

“Of course, this comes just days after Trump suggested that a civilian Medal, the Medal of Freedom, was better than the Medal of Honor, because the armed soldiers who received the Medal of Honor are often either killed or wounded,” he added. “And, of course, we’ve been reminded of late, how Trump used to refer to veterans, even deceased soldiers as suckers and losers, a comment, confirmed by his own Chief of Staff.”

The Trump campaign posted a video of a portion of the event, which aired live Monday on Fox News, and used it as an attack on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“After the ceremony, Trump headed to Section 60 of the cemetery, where some service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried and recording is typically heavily restricted,” NBC News reports.

READ MORE: Grand Jury Indicts Trump Again for J6: If He Loses ‘He’s Going to Jail,’ Expert Predicts

NPR was first to report on the alleged altercation.

“A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said 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,” NPR reported Tuesday evening. “When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.”

Arlington National Cemetery issued a statement to NPR, saying it “can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.”

“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,” the statement said. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait called it an “illegal” photo-op, adding: “Trump used the site as a photo-op in apparent violation of federal regulations.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung claimed on social media, “We were granted access to have a photographer there.”

NBC News added that “Cheung denied some of the details of the report and said the campaign was willing to release footage to support its claim.”

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Cheung said in a statement, according to NBC.

He also appeared to refer to the Arlington official as “an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode,” who “decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

Trump campaign senior advisor Corey Lewandowski posted photos from the event, including a highly-controversial image of the ex-president standing behind a gravestone holding his thumb up.

Relatives of five fallen service members in a statement Trump posted to social media wrote: “We had given our approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event.”

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National security Attorney Brad Moss, reposting the statement, said: “I have nothing but respect for the families of those who perished, and I don’t question they intended to give consent to Trump to use photography and video at ANC. But I don’t think Federal law has an exception like that.”

Former Lincoln Project executive director Fred Wellman, an Army combat veteran who now hosts the podcast “On Democracy with FPWellman,” responded to the statement from the families: “This isn’t their choice. It’s a Federal law. The families of the men and women buried around them didn’t get to choose being included in this campaign stunt.”

Alexander Vindman, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and former Director for European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) on social media asked both Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, “Any comments on Trump violating the law while desecrating Arlington National Cemetery for a campaign stunt?”

Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall wrote, “The Trump campaign broke federal law by staging a political event at one of the country’s oldest national cemeteries and then attacked a member of the cementery staff trying to enforce this meant to keep American military dead from becoming props in political ads. When do we get to see the report? Which Trump staffers desecrated the space by attacking a staffer trying to maintain the dignity of the cemetery and uphold the law?”

Adam Cohen, vice chair of Lawyers for Good Government, on social media commented: “It is unlawful to use photographs from Arlington National Cemetery as part of a political campaign Hopefully the DOJ will file charges against any Trump campaign staffers who have violated this statute.”

MSNBC legal analyst and professor of law Joyce Vance, a former U.S, Attorney, asked: “Where is the outrage, the demand for prosecution, that would follow an incident like this with any other candidate; especially the outrage from Republicans had a Dem[ocrat] done this?”

See the videos above or at this link.

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News

Liz Cheney Predicts Many Republicans Will Secretly Vote For Kamala Harris

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Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney predicted Sunday many Republicans will actually end up voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former Wyoming representative appeared on ABC’s This Week to urge her fellow Republicans to dump former President Donald Trump and endorse Harris as she has.

“Given the closeness of this election, particularly if you’re going to find yourself voting in a swing state, you’ve got to take the extra step if you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses. Then it’s not enough to simply say, ‘I’m not going to vote for him,’” she said.

READ MORE: Liz Cheney Stomps Mitch McConnell for ‘Political Calculation’ to Ignore Trump’s Election Crimes

But she also said that even if many Republicans don’t follow her lead and denounce the former president, they’ll take advantage of the privacy of the polls to secretly support the Democratic candidate.

“It’s a secret ballot,” Cheney said. “At the end of the day, you just have to wrestle with your own conscience when you’re there in the voting booth. And I would expect that you will see far more Republicans and independents, you know, when the time comes, and they’ve got to make that decision, make the right decision.”

This would be the opposite of what some believe happened in 2016. Polls at the time generally showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the lead over Trump. But when the election happened, though Clinton won the popular vote, it wasn’t enough to tip the Electoral College in her favor.

Over 70% of Republican insiders felt the polls underestimated Trump’s support, according to a Politico article from October 2016.

“I personally know many Republicans that won’t admit that they are voting for Trump. I don’t like admitting it myself. It won’t matter if Hillary is up more than 5 points, but we might be in for a surprise if Hillary’s lead is less than 5 points on Election Day,” an unnamed Virginia Republican told the outlet at the time.

In a 2016 interview conducted before the election, Trump’s then-campaign manager Kellyanne Conway pointed out that Trump polled better in anonymous online polls than in more traditional polling, according to WJLA.

“It’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college-educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump,” she said.

A 2019 study found that this was indeed the case. The study found that 54% of those polled voted for Trump but kept their preference a secret publicly. When broken out by gender, 57% of men and 50% of women polled kept their Trump vote a secret.

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News

Trump Calls for Government Shutdown: ‘CLOSE IT DOWN!!!’

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Former President Donald Trump urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to cause a government shutdown unless the House passes the SAVE Act.

“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘STUFF’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN – CLOSE IT DOWN!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Tuesday.

Johnson has paired the continuing resolution, which would fund the government for another six months, with the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship in order to become a registered voter. The SAVE Act was originally introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and passed in the House on its own in July. Every Republican voted for the SAVE Act, along with five Democrats.

READ MORE: GOP Congressman Admits ‘Most of What We Do Is Bad’ as McCarthy’s Republicans Push for Federal Government Shutdown

The standalone version of the SAVE act is stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It is unlikely to pass, and has yet to be brought to a vote in that chamber. President Joe Biden has promised to veto it should the bill make it out of the Senate.

Attaching the SAVE Act to the continuing resolution has not made it any more popular outside of the House. In fact, at least five House Republicans said they’re against the pairing, according to Roll Call. Republicans’ majority in the House is slim, meaning that providing no absences and a united front against it from Democrats, five Republicans are all that are needed to sink the resolution.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said in the House Monday that even if the continuing resolution passes as-is, the Senate would remove the SAVE Act and send it back to the House. Even in the unlikely situation where the Senate lets the SAVE Act part stand, Biden’s reiterated that he would veto it, according to The Hill.

Critics of the SAVE Act point out that it’s irrelevant. Only American citizens are allowed to vote by law, and it’s very rare for noncitizens to try to vote illegally.

“This is a crime where not only are the consequences really high and the payoff really low — you’re not getting millions of dollars, it’s not robbing a bank, you get to cast one ballot,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice, told MSNBC. “But what also makes this somewhat unique is that committing this crime actually entails the creation of a government record of your crime.

“It’s very easy to catch, and you will get caught.”

Morales-Doyle said that on the other hand, the SAVE Act would make it more difficult for actual citizens to vote because many do not have passports or access to their birth certificates. There is also a law against requiring proof of citizenship in federal elections, MSNBC reported.

Threatening government shutdowns has become a common ploy from the Republicans, and there have been 10 shutdowns since 1981, according to History.com. All but three of the 10 shutdowns were led by Republicans. One exception was in 1982, when both parties of Congress missed the deadline despite agreeing on terms. In confusion, some agencies sent employees home, but the shutdown only lasted three days, between September 30 and October 2.

The remaining two shutdowns were the result of Democrats protesting Trump’s policies. In January 2018, there was a four-day shutdown over Trump’s plans to phase out the DACA program allowing children of undocumented people to remain in the United States. The end of 2018 saw the longest shutdown in history. The issue was over funding Trump’s planned wall along the border of Mexico. The shutdown lasted over a month, until Republicans backed down.

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CORRUPTION

JD Vance Says in 2020 He Wouldn’t Certify Election: ‘Let the Country Have the Debate’

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Ohio Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, said Monday that if he were in former Vice President Mike Pence’s place, he would not have certified the election on January 6, 2021.

Speaking as part of a panel on the All-In Podcast, Vance told cohost Jason Calacanis the issue wasn’t necessarily Pence deciding not to “overturn the election results,” but rather that “Mike Pence could have done more to sort of surface some problems.”‘

Calacanis replied by asking Vance directly if he would have certified the election.

READ MORE: ‘BadgerPundit’: Top Trump Attorney in Fake Electors Plot Hid Secret Twitter Account

“I happen to think that there were issues back in 2020, particularly in Pennsylvania. Even some of the courts that refused to throw out certified ballots did say that there were ballots that were cast in an illegal way. They just refused to actually decertify the election results in Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “Do I think that we could have had a much more rational conversation about how to ensure that only legal ballots are cast? Yes. And do I think that Mike Pence could have played a better role? Yes.”

Calacanis asked Vance again if he’d have certified the election, and Vance appears to back the plan to send fake electors to cause confusion in the certification process.

“I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election that we have. That’s what I would have done,” Vance said. “The important part is we would have had a big debate. And it doesn’t necessarily mean the results would have been any different, but we would, at least, have had the debate in Pennsylvania and Georgia about how to better have a rational election system where legal ballots are cast.”

Democrats heavily criticized Vance’s statement.

“Donald Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because he knows that Vance will do what his last vice president wouldn’t—undermine our democracy and help him try to overturn election results. Now, Vance is making it clear: instead of certifying the 2020 election, Vance ‘would have asked the states’ to send slates of fake electors and throw our election into chaos to help Trump stay in power. Vance is clearly laying out the stakes of this election for our democracy and our basic freedoms, and showing voters that if given the chance, he’ll try to replace the rule of law with the rule of Trump,” Alex Floyd, the rapid response director for the DNC, said in a statement.

Vance’s claims of there being illegal ballots in Pennsylvania appears to be based on a claim from former President Donald Trump in 2022. Trump said that a then-recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that ballots sent in undated envelopes will not be counted in that year’s election meant that the 2020 election was “rigged, but they’ll let that result stand.”

The Associated Press debunked Trump’s claim, reporting that not only did Trump misrepresent the court’s ruling, but even if his claim was accurate, throwing out these ballots would not have mattered in the election.

 

 

 

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