Bob Oswald
Former President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery resulted in the U.S. Army issuing a statement in defense of a cemetery official, following a verbal altercation and shoving between a Trump staff member and the official.
The official was reportedly trying to prevent Trump’s group from taking photos.
According to reports, Trump visited Section 60, an area with the graves of recent U.S. casualties. In this section of the cemetery, federal regulations prohibit photos or video “for partisan, political or fundraising purposes.” The former president has been criticized for taking photos and video, and flashing a thumbs-up, while standing among the graves of fallen soldiers.
Some social media users compared Trump’s video of the visit to a 2010 post by President Joe Biden.
“Well well well. Joe Biden literally did a campaign ad at the graves in Arlington in 2020. Media and the Pentagon didn’t even care,” wrote one X user. It included a photo from a May 25, 2020 Memorial Day campaign ad from Biden’s official account.
But the posts can’t be compared, according to Poynter. The circumstances surrounding each event are different.
The photo of Biden visiting the graves in Section 60 was taken when he was vice president. The May 31, 2010, visit, which included participation in a wreath-laying ceremony and delivering a speech, was part of his official duties.
At the time, Biden wasn’t running for office. He and President Barack Obama launched their reelection campaign in April 2011.
Biden’s campaign ad also included a disclaimer at the beginning of the video which stated, “The use of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) visual information does not imply or constitute endorsement of the U.S. military, any military personnel or the Department of Defense.”
Trump’s video included a narration that criticized Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Harris overestimates Inflation Reduction Act
Vice President Kamala Harris recently sat down for her first media interview since she became the Democratic presidential candidate. During the Aug. 29 interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Harris claimed the Inflation Reduction Act has shown some impressive results.
“The Inflation Reduction Act, what we have done to invest, by my calculation, over 10 — probably a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, investing in a clean energy economy. What we’ve already done, creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs,” Harris said.
But that’s not quite accurate, according to FactCheck.org. The claim needs some context.
The “trillion dollars” in funding isn’t all from the Inflation Reduction Act. She has used that figure before, and earlier this year a White House spokesperson told E&E news, “When the VP references the roughly $1T historic climate investment, she is referencing all of the clean energy, resilience, environmental justice, and innovation funding that is part of our historic effort to address the climate crisis, increase resilience, advance environmental justice, and build a clean energy economy.”
As for 300,000 new jobs, some are just part of a proposal.
Climate Power, a group that advocates for clean energy, in a June 20 report said, more than 300,000 jobs were “announced or [have] moved forward.” A U.S. Department of Energy report said 256,000 clean energy jobs were added in 2023 and 2024, but there are no estimates of how many of those jobs were the result of Biden administration policies.
Walz didn’t write Guardian essay
Social media posts appear to show a screenshot of an essay in The Guardian newspaper written by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. The article is titled “Male bonding doesn’t have to be about bravado and bros. Dancing on stage naked taught me a better way.”
The subhead of the article reads, “Friendships based on sport and alcohol don’t always allow us to be our true selves. Shared vulnerabilities enrich our lives.” A photo of Walz appears above the subhead.
A commenter on the post wrote, “Weirdo, and they called Vance weird.”
This article is real, according to Reuters, but it wasn’t written by Walz.
The essay, with that actual headline, was written by Swedish author Gunnar Ardelius and was posted to the Guardian website on Aug. 26. The screenshot was altered to add Walz’s photo and byline.
“The image shared is not genuine,” a spokesperson for The Guardian told Reuters.
Melania Trump didn’t file for divorce
Over the Labor Day weekend, a surprising claim showed up on social media.
“The streets are saying Melania Trump just filed for divorce MINUTES ago in Palm Beach,” read a Sept. 1 Threads post.
But the claim is false, according to PolitiFact.
“We have reviewed all of our court records, including those filing still in our workflow queue waiting to be processed, and we have no divorce case filed by Melania Trump here in Palm Beach County,” Karina Rodriguez-Matzen, civil court operations director for Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, told PolitiFact.
The false claim originated from an account by former data scientist for Florida’s Department of Health and former Democratic congressional candidate Rebekah Jones.
Hours after Jones posted the false claim, she posted that she “made up a rumor about a presidential candidate.”
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.