Army 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain, the son of late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), feigned outrage over former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery despite his father making an ad there.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, the younger McCain blasted Trump for honoring the 13 fallen U.S. service members who were killed during the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan.
When asked “why” he had described Trump’s visit to the cemetery as a “violation,” McCain explained that the people buried at the cemetery “don’t have an opinion” and the point of the cemetery is to go and “show respect for the men and women” who have served.
“As you well know, sir, Arlington Cemetery is sacred to all people who are members of the military, all people who have served in uniform,” McCain said. “It’s a sacred area. There’s three generations of McCains that are buried there. It’s a violation because these rules are set in place. … the point of Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives for this country. When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.”
The comment from the younger McCain comes after his father used footage from Arlington National Cemetery in a campaign advertisement in 1999.
A spokesman from McCain’s campaign revealed in November 1999 that footage from the cemetery would be removed from the campaign ad, according to the Los Angeles Times:
The Army said this week that the Arizonan’s campaign did not ask permission to film him at the cemetery. Any request to do so would have been denied because partisan activity is banned at Army installations, the Army said. McCain acknowledged that his campaign erred and sent a letter to the Army saying that the scenes would be cut.
When Tapper mentioned how his father had used footage from Arlington National Cemetery in an ad and how Trump’s visit to the cemetery had “bothered” McCain’s son, the younger McCain pointed out that his father “pulled it down.”
“The first thing about John McCain, you don’t spend that long in politics without messing up once or twice,” the younger McCain said. “The main point is that he pulled it down and he understood the solemn — the sanctified nature of that — of Arlington National Cemetery. So, if Donald Trump pulled it down and apologized, it would be the right thing to do.”
In the aftermath of Trump’s visit to the cemetery, NPR released an article alleging that Trump campaign officials had gotten into a ” verbal and physical altercation” with a cemetery official who had been attempting to prevent them from filming and taking photos in Section 60 of the cemetery.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung addressed the allegations by explaining that a “private photographer was permitted on the premises.”
Cheung also shared a photo in a post on X showing that “only” Trump was allowed to “have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool” at the cemetery.
We were granted access to have a photographer there. https://t.co/s2E9lNdksK pic.twitter.com/dXbZ03hwzB
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) August 27, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris later issued a statement attacking Trump for visiting the cemetery and described it as a “political stunt.”
In response to Harris’s statement, Trump released videos from several family members of the 13 fallen U.S. servicemembers who lost their lives during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, slamming Harris for “playing politics” and releasing a “heinous, vile and disgusting” statement.