The dispute over former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday keeps escalating.
In an article published late Wednesday, the Daily Caller reported that Arlington officials were so uncooperative with the families of the fallen who’d requested Trump’s presence that powerful Republican members of Congress had to intervene.
The controversy made Texas Rep. Michael McCaul “furious.”
McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’d been contacted by the Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett — the parents of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover who were seeking help to get approval for Trump’s visit to their son’s grave.
Hoover was one of 13 American service personnel killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, terrorist bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump’s visit was part of ceremonies to mark the third anniversary of the attack.
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“Arlington National Cemetery told gold star families that they could only be there for a specific time that did not work for everyone’s schedule and were also told the president could not join them at their children’s gravesites, the family told the Caller,” the Daily Caller reported.
To McCaul, Arlington officials were trying to “stymie” the former president.
“When Darin and Kelly contacted me, I was furious to hear their request to have President Trump join them to commemorate the anniversary of Taylor’s death was being stymied, along with several of the other family members of U.S. servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate,” McCaul said, according to the Daily Caller.
McCaul said he enlisted the aid of House Speaker Mike Johnson and the situation was resolved.
Should Arlington National Cemetery officials apologize to Gold Star Families and Trump?
“But something like this should never have happened. Gold Star families have already suffered enough,” McCaul said, according to the Daily Caller.
Meanwhile, California Republican Darrell Issa, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, accused the Biden-Harris White House of being behind the roadblocks.
“This administration absolutely interfered with the tributes to the 13 fallen. In its war on Trump, it made the Gold Star families collateral damage,” Issa said, according to the Daily Caller.
In the liberal media, the controversy is being used to attack Trump — either openly or by implication.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, as the liberal site Mediaite reported, NeverTrumper conservative commentator Charlie Sykes linked the dispute to Trump’s previous tussles with the now-deceased Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a former prisoner of war, and the disputed — and literally incredible — claim that Trump had insulted dead American soldiers buried at a military cemetery in France in 2018.
The New York Times highlighted the story through the lens of the family of a soldier buried near Hoover in Arlington, and their complaint that Trump’s staff allegedly “did not adhere to the rules” at Arlington regarding recording on the premises. (The Trump campaign maintains it had approval to record.)
So, the story is becoming a political football, with liberal outlets and NeverTrumpers on the right using it to go on the attack against the 45th president.
But the Hoover family is standing firm that Trump did the right thing.
“We, WE extended the invitation to President Trump. We are the ones that asked him to come,” Darin Hoover told the Daily Caller, according to Wednesday’s report.
“President Trump didn’t come to us. His team didn’t come to us and say, hey, this would be good for business. Business? No.
“President Trump has stood by us from day one. He has been compassionate. He has been loving. He’s been understanding. He’s taking the mantle of our outrage a little bit.
“Because to be quite honest with you, being very frank, we haven’t heard diddly squat from the current administration in three years.”
According to the Daily Caller, the White House referred questions to Arlington officials. The cemetery did not immediately respond to Daily Caller requests for comment, the publication reported.
