JD Vance Defends Trump And Tells Kamala Harris to ‘Go to Hell’ Over Arlington Incident

Vice President Kamala Harris was criticized by former president Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, for using the toughest rhetoric when she accused Trump of seeking attention by touring Arlington National Cemetery. At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Vance ranted that Harris "can go to hell" over the Biden administration's handling of the US Army pullout from Afghanistan in 2021. Harris was branded 'disgraceful' by the Ohio senator, who claimed that the story should focus on, "Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up."

The comment was made in response to an incident that occurred on Monday during Trump's visit to the cemetery. Three years have passed since 13 service members were killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul amid the disorganized departure from the nation. Trump paid respects to warriors buried in Section 60 of the site, which is home to fallen veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. There, according to several accounts, an altercation took place between representatives of the Trump campaign and a cemetery official. Whether or not the Republican leader's campaign photographer had permission to enter the area was the topic of disagreement. 

When a reporter from CBS News inquired about the heated exchange, Vance responded by shifting the attention onto Harris. "Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn't been a single investigation or a single firing." Later, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Vance stated that his remarks were appropriate. "Sometimes I get frustrated and pissed off," he admitted, accusing the Harris team of "trying to make a massive political issue" out of the incident. 

"The altercation at Arlington cemetery is the media creating a story where I don't think there is one," Vance said. "That's not an insult to the memories of their loved ones, they wanted Donald Trump to be there, and thank God we have a president who wants to stand with our veterans instead of one who wants to run away from them," he concluded. 

Meanwhile, in a statement released on Monday to commemorate the bombing, Harris stated she "will fulfill [the] sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and [would] always honor their service and sacrifice." "As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America's longest war," she defended. 

While Vance deflected, the spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, claimed that an official with the cemetery attempted to 'physically stop' members of Trump's crew. "The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," he clarified, as reported by the Daily Mail.