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September 1, 2024

Kamala’s tin-eared attack on Trump’s visit to Arlington and Jamie Raskin investigates

By Andrea Widburg

Kamala, who has never spoken to the families of those who died during the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, thought it would be a good idea to attack Donald Trump for accepting the Gold Star families’ ceremony at Arlington. The Trump response was to publish videos of those same families attacking Harris and Biden. This should have warned Democrats away from this topic, but they can’t let go, right down to the fact that Rep. Jamie Raskin (who wants to change the law to keep Trump out of office) has decided to launch a formal investigation.

To catch you up on events, in 2021, rather than conducting a carefully phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, complete with keeping the Taliban’s testicles in a vice at all times to protect American gains, American allies, and American troops, the Biden administration bugged out. As well as abandoning Afghan allies to the Talibans’ revenge, as well as leaving behind a treasure trove of American weapons, the pullout was so chaotic that 13 American troops died during a final attack.

Memorably, when their bodies were returned to America, although Joe Biden did attend the dignified transfer service, he kept checking his watch:

That was not dignified, kind, or respectful. Kamala Harris did not attend the service. Neither has had any contact with the Gold Star families since then. Fast forward to last week: The Gold Star families invited Donald Trump to a service at Arlington being held to honor their dead. I’m unclear whether the families invited Biden or Harris. If they were not invited, it’s because the families are still angry over the incompetence that led to their loved ones’ deaths, as well as the administration’s ignoring them in the years since. If they were invited, they chose not to go. While Kamala stayed home, Joe was lounging on the beach:

Once at Arlington, a Pentagon employee tried to block Trump’s team, claiming that they could not film or take photographs there. That’s nonsense. The rule prohibits using Arlington for disrespectful political purposes, something obviously intended to prevent rallies, speeches, commercials, raves, etc. Filming happens constantly, as evidenced by news teams filming the ceremony. Biden used footage of himself at Arlington in his 2020 campaign.

The same employee now claims that the Trump team physically tussled with her, a claim that the Trump team says is defamatory. The Army chose to get involved by backing the employee in a passive-aggressive way. I’m sure the Army response has nothing to do with the fact that Trump has repeatedly stated that he intends to remove woke people from the Pentagon so that the military can return to its job of defending the American people, not the deviant people.

The ceremony was respectful, and it was dedicated not to Donald Trump but to those who died on Kamala’s and Biden’s watch:

Yesterday, Kamala decided to wade into the fray by accusing Trump of politicizing his visit to Arlington:

This was a mistake, given that Kamala boasts about having been the last person in the room when planning the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal:

As noted, Kamala has never spoken to the families or apologized for her role in their deaths.

Several Gold Star families voiced their disgust with the way Kamala and the Democrats were trying to turn a respectful ceremony focused on their children into a political attack. Here are their videos (with more from me after the video embeds):

Even though this has turned into a political landmine for the Democrats, they aren’t going to let go. This morning on Meet the Press, Kristen Welker tried to rehabilitate Harris and Biden and attack Trump, but Sen. Tom Cotton politely trampled her arguments:

Now, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the radical Maryland Democrat who vows to keep Trump out of the White House when he wins the election, announced that he will launch a formal investigation into the matter:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) asked the U.S. Army in a letter Friday for a full report and a briefing on former President Trump’s visit to Arlington cemetery, after reports of a confrontation between his staff and cemetery officials surfaced.

Raskin, the ranking member on the House Oversight Commitee, sent the letter, obtained by The Hill, to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. The lawmaker asked her to provide a report on the incident, including whether the former president’s staff “violated federal law or Cemetery rules and whether the Trump campaign informed the families of servicemembers buried at the Cemetery that their gravestones would be used in Mr. Trump’s political campaign ads.”

One wonders if the Pentagon has the capacity to answer Raskin’s request honestly. I have my doubts, but Pentagon personnel would be wise to tread carefully in case Trump wins (which I believe he will because I think Kamala has now passed her “sell-by” date).

The first rule of holes is to stop digging, but the Democrats can’t seem to quit this one. They took a small, non-political event and elevated it into a cause célèbre, even though it reflects poorly on the administration, the media, and the military. This is not a winning issue for them. They think they’ve painted Trump as a monster, but they’ve only succeeded in showing that they will stop at nothing, including using the honored dead to smear their political opponent.

Image by Andrea Widburg

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