Harris, Trump clash over patriotism and the military

The Harris and Trump campaigns' battle over patriotism and military service is heating up, the latest controversial line of attack in the election cycle. 

Democrats are hammering former President Trump over a reported confrontation at Arlington National Cemetery between campaign staffers and a cemetery official last week, while Republicans are continuing to raise questions about Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s military service. 

The latest salvo comes as a Change Research poll released Wednesday showed Trump leading with active-duty service members and their families.

According to the poll, Trump leads Vice President Harris among veterans with 51 percent support to 41 percent, among active-duty service members with 49 percent support to 44 percent and among their families with 47 percent support to 45 percent.

“[Trump’s] character and his patriotism and his pledges to fix big problems for veterans’ care are the reason why he has such a following among veterans and active duty military,” said John Ullyot, a former National Security Council spokesperson under Trump and a Marine veteran.

Still, the former president has faced a barrage of criticism, particularly for his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery to honor the 13 service members killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago. 

NPR first reported that an official at the cemetery was involved in a confrontation with Trump campaign staffers who were filming and taking photos in Section 60, a restricted area where recently killed soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried. 

The Army said in a statement last week that the official was trying to enforce rules prohibiting political activity on cemetery grounds and the official was pushed aside. The Army said “the employee subsequently decided not to press charges” and “considers the matter closed.”

The Trump campaign, on the other hand, said there was no physical altercation and that it was cleared to film on the grounds. 

But that has failed to mitigate the criticism. 

On Tuesday, the late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) son Jimmy McCain slammed Trump’s visit to the cemetery and endorsed Harris. And Harris responded to the reported incident in a statement last week by saying that “the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

“The second that any of the imagery that was gathered at gravesites was used for partisan political purposes in ads, in social media, in anywhere else, any moral ground he had to stand on just crumbled underneath him,” said Mike Lavigne, a retired Army sergeant major and a senior adviser at the progressive group Vote Vets. 

“More Americans need to pay attention,” Lavigne said. “If that’s the level of respect he shows for our fallen in Arlington Cemetery, what’s he going to do if he gets another bite of the apple in the Oval Office?” 

Republicans have sought to emphasize that Trump was honoring the fallen service members on the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal, which they have pinned on Harris and President Biden. 

Last week, Trump’s campaign issued a statement from the Gold Star families who invited him to Arlington, accusing Harris of politicizing the event. 

“President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three-year anniversary of our children’s deaths,” the statement said. “He was there to honor their sacrifice, yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.”

Trump has faced backlash going back to 2015, when he criticized McCain for being a former prisoner of war. He has also received criticism for a report in The Atlantic, saying he referred to fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.” Trump has repeatedly denied making the comments. 

But his supporters point to his national security and veterans policies, including his passage of the Veterans Choice Act and efforts to reduce veteran homelessness. 

“[Trump] has the record on both veterans issues and on our national security that is second to none in the last 25 years,” Ullyot said. “He was pulling us out of endless wars and at the same time was using the military to do what they do best, which is killing bad guys around the world,” he added, referring to the strikes to take out Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

Walz’s own record in the military has come under scrutiny from Republicans who have raised questions about his time in the Army National Guard, when he retired from service, his rank in retirement and imprecise language he used several years ago to describe how he carried a weapon in war. 

The Minnesota governor referred to “weapons of war that I carried in war” when talking about gun violence in a 2018 speech. Harris’s campaign said that the governor “misspoke” at the time. The vice presidential candidate has also faced criticism from Republicans for his 2005 resignation from the National Guard prior to running for Congress, saying he left his unit before he was deployed overseas. But Walz launched his campaign months before his unit was mobilized. 

The Harris campaign also received backlash for referring to Walz as a “retired command sergeant major.” While Walz reached that rank, he did not complete the requirements to retain it before he retired. 

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who served in the Marines, has accused Walz of “stolen valor,” while a group of 50 Republican lawmakers in a letter accused him of diminishing “the real sacrifices made by veterans who did serve in combat.” 

“Veterans are never chest-beating about their service and there’s a perception that if anybody is and it turns out that they’re exaggerating their record, then there’s nothing worse for veterans,” Ullyot said. “I’m not going to use a term like stolen valor, others may do that, but the first lesson of being a veteran is to be modest about your service even if you’re a true war hero.”

When asked about his military record during a CNN interview last month, Walz said he was “incredibly proud” of his 24 years of service and that his record “speaks for itself.” 

Lavigne said he believed Walz made the right decision retiring from the Army after 24 years of service to run for Congress, pointing to his work involving service members, veterans and military families in the House. 

“I’m not a huge fan of the whole veteran-on-veteran violence that seems to be going on in the political world right now,” Lavigne said. “There’s this comparison of who went to combat and what is combat and are you a combat veteran and did you just deploy.”

“To me, it cheapens all of our experience collectively.”