By Doina Chiacu, Reuters
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at an election campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on 29 August. Photo: AFP/ Kyle Mazza
US Vice President Kamala Harris has criticised her Republican presidential rival Donald Trump on Saturday over a visit he made to soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery that was later used in campaign video footage.
"It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honour American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation. It is not a place for politics," Harris wrote in an X post.
The vice president weighed in five days after Trump took part in a wreath-laying ceremony honouring the 13 servicemembers killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
He also visited Section 60 of the Virginia cemetery, which the military considers hallowed ground. Federal law and Pentagon policies do not allow political activities in that section, but Trump's campaign took videos and used them in advertisements as he battles Democrat Harris in a close race for the White House.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lays a wreath during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, USA, on 26 August. Photo: AFP
Trump's visit drew criticism from some veterans and soldiers' relatives. The US Army on Friday defended a cemetery employee who was pushed aside at Section 60, saying she acted professionally and was being unfairly attacked.
"Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt," Harris wrote.
Trump vice presidential pick JD Vance and press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Harris' post with their own that referenced the Afghanistan pullout and accused Harris of being insensitive to the servicemembers who died there.
"Why don't you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?" Vance wrote.
Trump used the third anniversary on Monday of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to try to pin the chaotic pullout under President Joe Biden on his vice president.
Harris, 59, became the Democratic nominee in the 5 November presidential election after Biden, 81, pulled out of the race in July.
The vice president's response to the Trump cemetery visit may give a clue to how she would handle the topic in their upcoming 10 September debate.
Harris referred to Trump's history of insulting military veterans.
"This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members 'suckers' and 'losers' and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients," she wrote.
Trump once said the late Senator John McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate, was not a war hero even though he spent years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after being shot down while a Navy pilot.
Trump referred to fallen World War One veterans as "suckers" and "losers," according to his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general.
It was unclear whether such incidents would sway the veterans' vote. In an April report, the Pew Research Centre found that military veterans favour the Republican Party.
- Reuters