‘Morning Joe’ Panel Accuse Trump Of Using Arlington National Cemetery As ‘Prop For A Political Campaign’

Panelists on “Morning Joe” accused Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday of honoring the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan as a “prop for [his] political campaign.”

Trump attended a ceremony on Monday to honor the third anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed 13 service members outside the Kabul International Airport during the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 26, 2021. The panel was responding to an alleged incident that occurred when a cemetery official blocked members of Trump’s campaign from accompanying the former president, according to NPR.

“I know a lot of military veterans were very uncomfortable with the idea that Trump was there at all and that he even at one point posed for a photograph with family members with a big smile and thumbs up on their face,” co-host Jonathan Lemire said. “Now we should note, some of the family members were doing the same, but that’s their right. Donald Trump, seemingly, very strange that he would do the same. And yet, some of these veterans were sort of just aghast that even in any way, shape or form, Arlington National Cemetery, arguably the most sacred place in our country, was being used as a backdrop for a political purpose.”

“The idea that any candidate of any party would use, intentionally or unintentionally, use that sacred ground as a prop for a political campaign is beyond condemnation,” MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle said. “It’s terribly upsetting obviously to people who have buried loved ones in Arlington National Cemetery, it’s terribly upsetting to many veterans, it’s terrible upsetting to people who view it as a spectacle and it ought to be upsetting to any American who values what the military does for this country worldwide and has done for this country for centuries and will continue to do for this country.”