White House says Biden and Harris weren invited to Arlington Cemetery by families of service members killed during Afghanistan withdrawal

Gold Star families did not invite President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Arlington National Cemetery last week to mark the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate in Afghanistan attack, a White House official and an Harris’s assistant said to NBC News The statement goes against the assertion made on Sunday by GOP Senator Tom Cotton and Former representative Tulsi Gabbard. 
 
The two were discussing the issue of former President Donald Trump who last week paid a visit to the Arlington National Cemetery where he has come under a lot of scrutiny for posing for a picture with Gold Star families in an area that does not allow photos. 
 
Last week, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby commented on Trump’s visit that it is a personal invitation from families. 
 
In extending his birthday greeting to the president, the PNP chief said that ‘There are many ways that we as a nation and our leaders can observe the third anniversary of Abbey Gate. ’ “Another way is to keep on going maybe not in the limelight, maybe not with recognition, maybe not with cameras and lights, but to go out there and ensure that all the families of the losses, of the injured, of those who got wounded – not just Abbey Gate but the entire 20 something years of war in Afghanistan, ensure that they are supported. ” 
 
The Army also accused one of Trump campaign staff of one ‘shoving to the side a staff member of the cemetery who wanted to enforce the ban on taking photo and shooting videos in the cemetery. 
 
When asked about the incident on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ programme on Sunday, Cotton, R-Ark. , told moderator Kristen Welker: “Those families, Gold Star families whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s incompetence, invited [Trump] to the cemetery and they asked him 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. ” 
 
Cotton said he met with Kelly Barnett and Darin Hoover, the parents of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, who died in Afghanistan, three years ago. Cotton did not elaborate whether they were the family members whom he said that invited Biden and Harris. 
 
Gabbard, a former Democratic House member from Hawaii, echoed Cotton, telling CNN on Sunday: I later learned that president Biden and the vice president Harris were invited by some of these family members and they not only refused to attend the occasion, but also did not have the courtesy to decline the invitation. 
 
Trump last week justified the photos and videos he took at the cemetery several days ago saying that a Gold Star family urged me whether I will be ready to stand for a picture at the grave of their beloved one who should not have died. ” 
 
He said he didn’t initiate the photo, adding: None the less, when I was there, I did not request a picture to be taken of me. They said to me, while I was there, Can we have photograph near the grave?’ 
 
Trump’s campaign shared on TikTok the ceremony and Chris LaCivita, co-manager of Trump’s campaign in Virginia shared a video of Trump touching flower at a grave, X. 
 
Trump defended that on Thursday, too, saying, “Well, we have a lot of people … TikTok people. ” 
 
However, he himself claimed not to know who did it and it was equally as likely that it was the parents that did it or somebody else, let alone. 
 
On Friday, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump said: “Joe Biden killed those young people because he was Inept”. And then they tell me that I exploit their graves as publicity department of my party, and I did not do that at all. " 
 
On Saturday night, Trump went on X to share several videos of families of the slain members supporting him and slamming Harris and Biden. 
 
One of the videos features Darin Hoover directly speaking to Harris and stating that Trump respected the family and demanding where she and Biden were on ‘Aug. 26, 2024. ’ Hoover said that they were ‘nowhere near Arlington Cemetery. ’ You couldn’t be bothered to be with us or say our kids’ names. ” 
 
Members of Gold Star families were outraged saying in the statement accompanying Trump campaign videos on Sunday that the senator tried to politicize Trump’s visit to the cemetery. 
 
“President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families to attend the serious rituals that marked the three-year anniversary of the death of our children on,” the statement read. “He was there to honour their sacrifice, and yet Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States has gone on to contemptuously politicise this. ” 
 
The videos were posted in response Harris’ statement Saturday that Trump “disrespected sacred ground” during his visit earlier in the day to Arlington National Cemetery in the Virginia suburbs of Washington.