Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) ripped Vice President Kamala Harris during an appearance on Meet the Press after being asked about President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
The backlash against Trump began after his appearance at the cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the 13 U.S. service members killed during the Pentagon’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
During a Sunday interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Cotton defended Trump, asserting that he did nothing wrong.
Welker referenced Cotton’s military background before posing the question, “Is it ever appropriate to make campaign content at military gravesites?” Cotton responded by stating that Trump was invited by the families of those killed at the Abbey Gate in Kabul and criticized Harris and President Joe Biden for their absence.
He didn’t take campaign photos there. These families, Gold Star families, whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ incompetence, invited him to the cemetery. And they asked him to take those photos because, as they told me yesterday when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darin Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don’t get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don’t get to have barbecues. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and honor their sacrifice. They wanted President Trump there. They wanted to take those photos. You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, D.C. She was four miles away, ten minutes. She could’ve gone to the cemetery and – and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women. But she hasn’t. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them.
The senator emphasized that Trump was not wearing his MAGA hat during the visit, suggesting that the visit to Arlington was unrelated to any political campaign.
Harris stated on Saturday that Trump’s visit was a “political stunt” and accused the former president of having “disrespected sacred ground.”
