Trump claims ‘no conflict’ during Arlington national cemetery visit despite US army statements – live | US elections 2024
Trump claims ‘there was no conflict’ during Arlington national cemetery visit
Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that “there was no conflict” during his visit to Arlington national cemetery last week, calling it “a made up story” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump wrote:
There was no conflict or “fighting” at Arlington National Cemetery last week. It was a made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad.
The US army accused the Trump campaign of turning a wreath-laying ceremony on 26 August to mark the deaths of US soldiers in Afghanistan into a photo opportunity.
The army also accused two campaign workers representing Trump of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.
An army spokesperson said a female Arlington national cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an argument with Trump aides over photos and filming on the grounds for partisan, political or fundraising purposes. A spokesperson for the military said the episode was “unfortunate”, and it was “also unfortunate” that the cemetery “employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked”. The employee is not pressing charges.
Key events
Harris campaign still negotiating over debate rules – report
The Harris campaign is still negotiating with ABC News about rules for the 10 September debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, NBC News reported, citing a Harris campaign official.
No agreement has been reached on the final rules, the official said.
The offices of Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican National Committee were briefly evacuated last week after staff thought they discovered listening devices under a desk, according to a local police report.
About 50 employees were evacuated on Thursday afternoon after people heard beeping under a staff member’s desk at the Trump campaign offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to the local police department.
Three devices were found by police and security, who subsequently swept the floors of the building, the Washington Post reported. Employees returned to the building later that afternoon. The devices were identified as “a cricket noisemaker prank” that can be bought on Amazon, it said.
A security official who worked in the building told the police he believed “the devices were part of a prank. The suites were canvassed for any additional devices and evidence yielding negative results”, the New York Times reported.
The Philadelphia Eagles said it is aware of “counterfeit ads being circulated” that claim the American football team has endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 2, 2024
Posters appeared on the streets of Philadelphia showing Harris wearing an Eagles helmet and holding an American football, with “KAMALA” in large bold letters and the tagline “Official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles”.
NBC Philadelphia reported spotting at least six of the counterfeit ads around the city before they were taken down on Monday. It is unclear who was responsible for them, it said.
JD Vance endorsed anti-IVF report that contradicts Trump’s new stance
Robert Tait
A rightwing thinktank report proposing sweeping restrictions to abortions and fertility treatments was endorsed by JD Vance years before he became a fervent backer of Donald Trump and – eventually – his vice-presidential running mate known for his derisive views on childless women.
In 2017, months into Trump’s presidency, Vance wrote the foreword to the Index of Culture and Opportunity, a collection of essays by conservative authors for the Heritage Foundation that included ideas for encouraging women to have children earlier and promoting a resurgence of “traditional” family structure. The essays lauded the increase in state laws restricting abortion rights and included arguments that the practice should become “unthinkable” in the US, a hardline posture the Democrats now say is the agenda of Trump and Vance, who they accuse of harbouring the intent to impose a national ban following a 2022 supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade and annulling the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.
The report also includes an essay lamenting the spread of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other fertility treatments, with the author attributing them as reasons for women delaying having children and prioritising higher education rather than starting families.
IVF has emerged as an issue in November’s presidential race after Trump said last week that he favoured it being covered by government funding or private health insurance companies – a stance seeming at odds with many Republicans, including Vance, who was one of 47 GOP senators to vote against a bill in June intended to expand access to the treatment.
Chris McGreal
Donald Trump has a knack for rallying a remarkable range of political opinion around a common goal: preventing his return to the White House.
That now includes prominent names from his own Republican party and top aides who worked under him as president. From former White House officials and national security staff to a once-worshipful press secretary, a host of one-time Trump fans are now lining up to join Democrats in declaring him unfit for another term in office.
White House lawyers who served Republican presidents going back to Ronald Reagan and retired senior military officers have also denounced Trump as a danger to democracy.
Adding to Trump’s humiliation, even members of his own cabinet – who once pledged their fealty with a subservience that would not displease Vladimir Putin – are declining to endorse him for re-election in November.
Read the full story: Republicans are lining up to oppose Trump. Will it make a difference?
A federal judge ordered Donald Trump and his campaign to stop using the song Hold On, I’m Coming by the late R&B artist and songwriter Issac Hayes.
The decision came after Hayes’s estate sought an emergency injunction to stop the Trump campaign from using the song at campaign events, alleging the campaign does not have approval.
Judge Thomas Thrash Jr ruled Trump and his campaign not to use the song “without proper license”, but he did not grant the estate’s request to order the campaign to take down recordings of past events in which it had used the song.
Trump regularly used the song as his exit music for much of the past year, including at the Republican National Convention in July, according to the New York Times.
Interim summary
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Donald Trump claimed that “there was no conflict” during his visit to Arlington national cemetery last week, calling it “a made up story” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The US army accused two campaign workers representing Trump of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.
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Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Republican senator John McCain, condemned Trump’s visit to the Arlington national cemetery last week as a “violation”. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he told CNN.
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Fred Trump III, the nephew of Donald Trump, said the Republican presidential nominee “just doesn’t give a shit” about members of the US military. “He just doesn’t. Donald believes in Donald,” he told MSNBC.
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Donald Trump said he had “every right” to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday. The Harris campaign said Trump’s comments “makes it clear that he believes he is above the law”.
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The Harris campaign launched the “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour aimed at advocating for women’s reproductive rights starting today in Palm Beach, Florida. The second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, the Minnesota first lady, Gwen Walz, the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and the Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez are among those who will be on the tour.
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The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee will transfer $25m to support down-ballot candidates.
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Kamala Harris is expected to announce new proposals meant to boost small businesses and entrepreneurs ahead of a campaign speech on Wednesday in New Hampshire, according to a report.
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The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case to rule on his motion to vacate his conviction, and not wait until a federal judge considers a separate motion filed by Trump last week to move the case into federal court.
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Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, warned his opposite number, the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, that history will judge him “poorly” because he paved the way to rightwing policies out of touch with the American people.
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Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator for Pennsylvania, said he will not be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the November election. Toomey said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but that he could not bring himself to support the Republican presidential candidate, citing Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr was asked if he would be vice-president under Donald Trump hours after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July, it has been revealed. Kennedy reportedly rejected the suggestion from Calley Means, an entrepreneur who sometimes advised him on chronic diseases and was acting as an intermediary, according to the New York Times.
John McCain’s son calls Trump visit to Arlington cemetery a ‘violation’
Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Republican senator John McCain, has condemned Donald Trump’s visit to the Arlington national cemetery last week as a “violation”.
Jimmy McCain, who has served in the military for 17 years, told CNN that he changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November.
“It just blows me away,” he said. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he said.
I just think that for anyone who’s done a lot of time in their uniform, they just understand that inherently – that it’s not about you there. It’s about these people who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.
The Harris campaign’s “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour will show the starkly different stances on women’s reproductive rights between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the Democratic senator for Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, said.
Klobuchar told CNN it was clear now that Trump is in favor of an “extreme abortion ban” in Florida, after he said last week he will not support a ballot referendum to expand abortion access in his home state just 24 hours after suggesting he might. Klobuchar said:
I’m a former prosecutor like Kamala Harris, and I view it pretty simply. Exhibit A, he said he was going to overturn Roe v Wade. Exhibit B, he put the justices on the court that did it. And Exhibit C, he said he is proudly the person responsible for overturning Roe v Wade.
The Harris campaign launched the “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour aimed at advocating for women’s reproductive rights starting today in Palm Beach, Florida.
The second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, the Minnesota first lady, Gwen Walz, the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and the Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez are among those who will be on the tour.
The tour plans to make at least 50 stops in key battle ground states with a focus on holding Donald Trump “directly accountable for the devastating impacts of overturning Roe v Wade, including threatening access to IVF”, according to the campaign.
Trump claims ‘there was no conflict’ during Arlington national cemetery visit
Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that “there was no conflict” during his visit to Arlington national cemetery last week, calling it “a made up story” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump wrote:
There was no conflict or “fighting” at Arlington National Cemetery last week. It was a made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad.
The US army accused the Trump campaign of turning a wreath-laying ceremony on 26 August to mark the deaths of US soldiers in Afghanistan into a photo opportunity.
The army also accused two campaign workers representing Trump of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.
An army spokesperson said a female Arlington national cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an argument with Trump aides over photos and filming on the grounds for partisan, political or fundraising purposes. A spokesperson for the military said the episode was “unfortunate”, and it was “also unfortunate” that the cemetery “employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked”. The employee is not pressing charges.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case to rule on his motion to vacate his conviction.
In a letter on Friday to the judge Juan Merchan made public today, prosecutors said the court should decide Trump’s motion on presidential immunity and not wait until a federal judge considers a separate motion filed by Trump last week to move the case into federal court. They wrote:
Federal law is clear that proceedings in this Court need not be stayed pending the district court’s resolution of defendant’s removal notice.
Merchan previously said he will rule on Trump’s challenge to his conviction based on the supreme court’s immunity decision.
Ed Pilkington
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, has warned his opposite number, the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, that history will judge him “poorly” because he paved the way to rightwing policies out of touch with the American people.
In an interview with Punchbowl News conducted at the Democratic national convention in August but published on Monday, Schumer accused McConnell of enabling Donald Trump’s remaking of US politics and the judiciary.
By helping to shift the supreme court sharply to the right through the former president’s three appointments to the top judicial bench, McConnell had played a part in abolishing the federal right to an abortion in the ruling ending Roe v Wade, and much more, Schumer contended. He said:
Not just on Roe, but on issue after issue where they’re so far out of touch with the American people … Even when McConnell thought Trump was wrong, he went along with [Trump] too many times.
He concluded that McConnell’s “role in history, in my opinion, will go down poorly”.
Former Republican governor Pat Toomey says Trump has ‘lost’ his vote
Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator for Pennsylvania, said he will not be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the November election.
Toomey, in an interview on CNBC, said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but that he could not bring himself to support the Republican presidential candidate, citing Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Toomey said:
When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point.
“It is an acceptable position for me to say that neither of these candidates can be my choice for president,” he added.
Former Republican Sen. Pat Toomey draws the line on Trump: “When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point.”
“…neither of these candidates can be my choice for president.” pic.twitter.com/uKwLIuBlSj
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 3, 2024
Trump and allies plant seeds for ‘chaos and discord’ if he loses, experts warn
Peter Stone
Donald Trump and election denialist allies at Turning Point USA, True the Vote and other Maga stalwarts are spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses, warn election experts and some veteran Republicans.
The consequences of the strategy could be dire. John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, who spoke at the Democratic national convention in August in support of Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, said that former president Trump and his allies “will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”, if Trump loses. He added:
They’ll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I’d be surprised if Trump doesn’t try to foment insurrection if he loses the election.
Twin drives by Trump and Maga allies echo some falsehoods from 2020 about fraud due to voting machines and drop boxes, but now promote Trump’s conspiratorial attacks on federal and state prosecutors who filed criminal charges against him for trying to subvert his loss in 2020, and push baseless claims that noncitizens are poised to vote in large numbers.
Turning Point USA, for instance, has touted a multimillion-dollar drive to get out more votes for Trump in key swing states, while holding a few big rallies for Trump where bogus claims are still being made that the 2020 election was rigged, and new fears are being raised about potential fraud this year.
Read the full story here: Trump and allies plant seeds for ‘chaos and discord’ if he loses, experts warn
Harris campaign says Trump’s comments ‘make it clear that he believes he is above the law’
Kamala Harris’s campaign said in a statement after Donald Trump said he had “every right” to interfere with the 2020 election that his comments were evidence that the Republican former president believed he was “above the law”.
On Monday, a Harris campaign spokesperson, Sarafina Chitika, said Trump’s comments were another example of the “chaos, fear, and division” Americans experienced under him.
Everything Donald Trump has promised on the campaign trail – from ‘terminating’ the constitution, to imprisoning his political opponents and promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one’ – makes it clear that he believes he is above the law. Now, Trump is claiming he had ‘every right’ to interfere in the 2020 election. He did not.
Trump says he had ‘every right’ to interfere in the 2020 election
Donald Trump said he had “every right” to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday.
Trump told the host Mark Levin:
It’s so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it? You get indicted and your poll numbers go up.
Trump faces federal charges in Washington DC for his alleged actions to subvert the 2020 election results, and is separately charged in Georgia with racketeering over an alleged scheme to overturn the state’s election results.
