Claim: MGM’s James Bond star Jeffrey Wright has claimed former President Donald Trump started a fight at Arlington National Cemetery this week while the current Republican presidential nominee was attending a memorial service to honor the 13 American service members who were killed during the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Verdict: False. Former President Donald Trump didn’t start a fight at Arlington.
Jeffrey Wright’s accusation appears to stem from an incorrect reading of an NPR report alleging Trump campaign staff got into an “altercation” with a cemetery official who prevented them from taking photographs in an off-limits section.
The Trump campaign is disputing NPR’s story.
“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”
Let’s please just have a POTUS who doesn’t start a fight in a cemetery. That’d be nice. Small things.
— Jeffrey Wright 🥜 (@jfreewright) August 29, 2024
As Breitbart News reported, Trump took part in a wreath-laying ceremony on Monday at Arlington Cemetery, honoring the 13 fallen service members who lost their lives on August 26, 2021, thanks to the Biden-Harris’ horrifically botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, one of the servicemembers who was killed, issued a statement that they had “absolutely welcomed and appreciated having video and photography there.”
Neither Kamala Harris nor Joe Biden attended Monday’s memorial service. Biden was on vacation in Delaware, while it remains unclear what Harris was doing, though her staff did issue a press release.
Kamala Harris has avoided mentioning the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal while on the campaign trail. Establishment news media outlets have also avoided bringing up the subject even though Kamala Harris was reportedly the last person to speak with President Biden before their administration decided to begin the deadly withdrawal.
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