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You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Late Night Open Thread: The Arlington Cemetery Assault Team

Late Night Open Thread: The Arlington Cemetery Assault Team

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My first thought was: The Trump campaign finally figured out which two staffers could most easily be sacrified… and, frankly, this story doesn’t really change that impression:

One of two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection bid, NPR has learned. The former president insisted this week the incident did not happen, highlighting a growing disconnect between the messaging of the candidate and his campaign. NPR is identifying both staffers after the campaign’s conflicting responses to the incident last week outside Section 60 of the cemetery, where many casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.

Caporale is a one time aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign. He was also listed as the on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 where Trump urged the crowd to “stop the steal” before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol…

After NPR first reported the altercation last week, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they were “prepared to release footage” of the incident, and attacked the Arlington employee as someone “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.” Cheung also said they were granted access to have a photographer present, and pointed to a statement from Gold Star family members that invited Trump to attend the ceremony…

The Army released a statement last Thursday acknowledging that a cemetery employee “was abruptly pushed aside” and the campaign was warned ahead of time of the prohibition against photography and political activities at Arlington. The Army said the cemetery employee tried to de-escalate the situation after she was pushed, in hopes of not upsetting the Gold Star families in attendance.

The Army said a police report of the incident was filed, but that the employee had declined to press charges, and that the Army considered the matter closed, but added that “the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked …

Neither Cheung, Picard or Caporale responded to emailed requests for comment as of publication time. Reached by phone, Caporale referred questions to Cheung. The Trump campaign has still not followed through on its pledge to release video of the incident, despite repeated requests from NPR.

This week, Trump contradicted his own campaign with a post on Truth Social falsely calling the confrontation a “made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad” that attacked Harris and Biden for not attending the private ceremony.

In an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday, Trump reiterated the false assertion that nothing happened at the cemetery, questioning the motives of the unnamed employee and downplaying the accusations as attacks over “publicity.”

“Do you notice that the person represented now doesn’t want to talk, he doesn’t want to speak or talk?” Trump asked, mislabeling the employee as male. “The nice thing, the beautiful thing, was all the parents and relatives got together and they said ‘That’s a false story, it was totally false.’”…

Maybe it’s just that Cheung, and known woman-abuser Corey Lewandowski, are now important enough to Trump that they’ve been assigned their very own personal goons to do the hands-on work?


Yeah, this dude was absolutely elected ‘First Minion Tossed Off the Sledge’…


(Also, TFG is losing what little grasp his tiny hands mind ever had on reality. But we knew that.)

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    to be fair, I would have expected to see the Gold Star families on the national networks proclaiming DJT’s innocence yet that hasn’t been reported.  Yes, he was invited, by the GS families that plan on voting for him, but the misrepresentation that this is a recognized event to be observed is false.  You can’t attend what you’re not invited to…

    The fact that the Vets and the Armed Forces active service members are speaking out about it just exemplifies the issue.  This stolen valor bullshit only sells if someone is buying.  I’m seeing ads in Arizona now attempting to run the same bullshit play against Gallego, the stolen valor angle, this time decrying that the border is being overrun at this very moment and most of it is the fault of Gallego.

    In AZ shit is heating up, all kinds of character ads and dueling policy issues.  The economy stuff, decrying that Dems are responsible for the lack of housing and their giveaways to those people mean that inflation is at an all time high (it isn’t) and that groceries are more expensive than ever (like it always is, but hey) and now Dems wanna come after your menthol cigarettes.  The Ciscomani/Engel race will likely be close, Engel has just uncovered some dirt that links Ciscomani to those “normal” tradwife and Catholic organizations that are anti-everything other than 1950s Americana.

    I’ve been donating to Jonathon Nez (former Navajo tribal President), the hope to turn AZ 2 back to blue.  Hoping that his presence will help to push our chances.  The district was drawn a bit redder in 2020, which led to Tom O’Halloran losing to Eli Crane in 2022.  Crane is another dangerous MAGA idiot who has had some moments of public stupidity and in this state, with Abortion on the ballot, there’s hope.

    Arizona is going to be ground zero (a long with PA, NC and GA) for the local GOP here is crazy enough to do shit, possibly even violent shit.  Both the Harris and Gallego campaigns have been running ads in Spanish, not just on TV but also online and radio.  Lots of working people still listen to Spanish language radio here.

    fingers crossed.

  5. 5.

    Rusty

    The WP, and the NYT in particular,  generate hundreds of articles in days about Biden after the debate, but they can’t manage to chase down one story about Trump’s campaign assaulting a federal worker and violating the law at Arlington National Cemetery.   The NYT is rewriting Trump responses whole cloth to make him sound coherent.  They really are that bad.  I wouldn’t have expected NPR to be the one to break the story, but good on them.

  6. 6.

    Msb

    I will believe these goons are scapegoats as soon as the campaign sacrifices them. Until then I will continue to believe the trump campaign consists solely of goons.
    Ready to bet anyone that this Picard is no relation to the Captain.

  10. 10.

    Shalimar

    @piratedan: Yes, he was invited, by the GS families that plan on voting for him, but the misrepresentation that this is a recognized event to be observed is false.  You can’t attend what you’re not invited to…

    Maybe they’re embarrassed because they dishonored their loved ones’ memories by participating in an obvious lie in their name.  If it were me, that would be a clear violation of my personal code.

  14. 14.

    TBone

    The tankie website I check in on to see what absolute shit lies Pooty wants spread here in the US has not one word about the latest indictments of Donvict or the Tenet people or the Simes couple. Not a single word.  The horseshoe-wingosphere is maintaining radio silence on these and I have to wonder who there knows they might be next in line…rubles can’t be that hard to trace!

  15. 15.

    BretH

    Wife likes to watch the evening news. Last night on NBC there was a 30 second bit about “Trump speaking about his economic policies” and they played maybe 2 extremely short clips that made him sound almost normal. Knowing his performance I almost threw things at the tv. This transcript – shortened due to space limitations is actually more coherent than the video:

    Q: What specific legislation will you commit to to make child care affordable?

    Trump: Well, I would do that and we’re sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about that because the child care is, child care couldn’t, you know, there’s something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it… I want to stay with child care… So we’ll take care of it. Thank you

  17. 17.

    TBone

    Spocko has a long post up at Digby’s place about the criminality at Arlington that should have been prosecuted by the Army.

    My brilliant friend Sara Robinson pointed out the military’s fear of losing favor in the future issue.
    The Army command is no doubt terrified that Trump will take power again, and doing anything about this now will only aggravate him more than he’s already aggravated at them.

    I can see their point, but my response remains the same: this is tantamount to coddling terrorists, which only means that the future will hold more of the same.
    Will they also hold still when President for Life Trump physically shoves aside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, claiming that he was having a mental episode?

    digbysblog.net/2024/09/05/the-dod-the-doj-are-afraid-to-bust-the-arlington-pusher-on-trumps-campaign…

  18. 18.

    TBone

    @Baud: it’s been so frickin’ obvious for so long, but it’s nice to see that hard evidence is coming out finally!  No one call me a conspiracy theorist about all this infiltration (Stasi tactics) – if it quacks and walks like a duck, it’s a dick duck!

  19. 19.

    raven

    @TBone: Egg fuckingzactly, I’ve said this from the jump.

     

    Second, as it was explained to me, the Army could have brought a case on her behalf, but made a decision NOT to, because they didn’t want to upset Trump. I know that there are Trump supporters in the military. But I would THINK that they would so upset by what happened that they would do something, like at least throw his STAFF under the bus.

  22. 22.

    TBone

    I was soundly castigated here a while back for sounding my alarm bell about Putin’s formative years being spent in East Germany with the Stasi.  I still believe it left an indelible mark on him.

  27. 27.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Trump may be losing his touch with reality but he’s been denying that things that actually happened, and there is video evidence that they happened, actually happened since 2015. In his first debate with Hillary he has what I mentally referred to is “never said that” tourettes. She’d point out something reprehensible or unpopular that he was recorded saying and he’d interject “never said that” every time. These are things he was on video saying, and fairly recently. So outright denying the Arlington thing happened may be memory but is probably just him shamelessly bullshitting like he always does.

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    @Nelle: Maybe the employee can file a lawsuit for defamation along the lines of Jean Carroll’s. One of Trump’s henchmen said she was having a mental health crisis and that seems actionable. And Caporale and Michel pushed her and that seems actionable as well. I bet she could get a good lawyer, and a favorable jury in Arlington County.

  33. 33.

    TBone

    @Geminid: funny, that’s what Spocko mocks – can’t prosecute actual death threats, so suing for monetary damages over criminal behavior is the only option left.

  34. 34.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Geminid: I bet she could get a good lawyer, and a favorable jury in Arlington County.

    Problem is, if the Army wasn’t willing to back her up, who’s is going to protect this woman from Trump’s army of flying monkeys? The threat of online and physical retaliation is very real, unfortunately.

    Hey. Nice job you got here. Be a shame if something happened to it.

  36. 36.

    Citizen Dave

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: As we all know, his whole life has been one long stream of bullshit.  Remember “Don’t believe what you see”?

     

    In this thread, I just realized who Pooty is.  Yesterday I read “pooty” and thought it was strange that Chris Matthews was relevant again.  Tweety, Pooty….

  37. 37.

    sdhays

    Was Trump “invited” to a private ceremony that existed without Trump’s involvement, or did the Trump campaign orchestrate this “ceremony” for him to attend?

    Also, the evidence that the supposed LAWS against political activity in ANC were violated is overwhelming. Why aren’t there charges there?

  38. 38.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sdhays: The answer to the first question is choice B. The answer to the 2nd is that its trump and they’re afraid of him and his clown posse.

  40. 40.

    K-Mo

    @Ishiyama: It’s wild how the Ttumpies have kept it going.  If I were Kamala I wouldn’t give it a lot of air, other than, “one more shit show from my unserious opponent.”

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    @Anyway: The disagreement is that she insists that the Stasi were a more important influence on Putin than the KGB. I disagree.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    South Dakota threw together a cheap you tube video mandating a new lower standard of medical care for women in the state, not based on modern science but instead based on religious dogma:

    First of all, it’s important to know that South Dakota’s health department created this video in consultation with the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG). That’s right, the group that says that abortion is never necessary to save someone’s health or life, and that recommends women be given c-sections rather than abortions—even before a fetus is viable. So from the get-go, we know that the point of this ‘informational’ video isn’t to help women or doctors, but to further enshrine anti-abortion bullshit. (For more on AAPLOG, revisit Abortion, Every Day’s explainer here.)

    Indeed, the video is part of a new legislative trend I warned about six months ago: “Med Ed” bills. Essentially, the anti-abortion movement knows that their public image is terrible, so they started proposing legislation they claim will explain state bans to doctors, and ensure women can access health- and life-saving care. In South Dakota’s case, the legislation mandated an informational video and other materials that would ‘clarify’ the state’s abortion ban and tell doctors what types of medical conditions qualify for emergency care.

    Leaving aside how dangerous it is to allow anti-abortion legislators and activists to define what conditions endanger pregnant women’s health and lives, there’s something else going on here too. As I wrote in my “Med Ed” explainer, this is a move to redefine ‘abortion’ and fuck with legislative and medical language in an effort to divorce abortion from healthcare.

    Just as predicted, South Dakota’s Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt kicks off the informational video by defining abortion not as a medical intervention, but an intention. She even explicitly says, “intent plays a crucial role.”

    “When a miscarriage occurs, when the pregnancy occurs outside the uterine cavity, commonly known as an ectopic pregnancy, or when a fetus never forms, the treatment for these conditions is not considered an abortion.” (Emphasis mine)

    Magstadt also calls care for life-threatening pregnancies a “maternal fetal separation,” echoing AAPLOG’s language that’s forced doctors to give women c-sections instead of easier and safer abortions.

    I could go on; honestly, I could write a dissertation on every minute of this video. But the most important things to know is that this is the anti-abortion movement’s attempt to 1) redefine abortion; 2) allow legislators to define what constitutes a dangerous pregnancy; and 3) make it appear that Republican legislators are doing something to help women in the post-Roe care crisis even as they further confuse doctors and endanger patients.

    On top of everything else, watching that video is just fucking weird. How is it possible that there’s YouTube video that will determine whether South Dakota women live or die.

    What “pregnant females” who have the misfortune to land in South Dakota should know is this mandates an unnecessary C-section in the case of a miscarriage – the modern best practices standard is to do an abortion but religious fundamentalists forbid that, so women will be forced to undergo abdominal surgery that is much, much riskier than an abortion and not medically necessary. 

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Magstadt also calls care for life-threatening pregnancies a “maternal fetal separation,” echoing AAPLOG’s language that’s forced doctors to give women c-sections instead of easier and safer abortions.

    I feel confident there is audio of JD Vance saying “maternal fetal separation” somewhere. The whole video sounds like him talking about women. It’s chilling when the GOP political hack/religious nut in the video announces that the woman’s abdominal cavity has to be filling with blood before a medical professional can intervene.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    the woman’s abdominal cavity has to be filling with blood before a medical professional can intervene

     
    It’s the only way to be sure she’s not lying.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    @The Thin Black Duke: Yes, the potential for harassment and worse that kept the ANC worker from pressing charges immediately will still be there. I think they will be diminished six months from now though, and that could change her calculations.

  50. 50.

    Starfish

    @Geminid: A lot of victims of various Republican bullies do not want to be in the spotlight and potential abuse by more bullies in Trump’s orbit. They don’t have the money for the personal security they would need for all that.

  51. 51.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Starfish: The S in that BRICS alliance that Russia leads is South Africa, which is where Elon grew up. Is he US citizen or just here on some kind of visa? If the latter maybe it’s time to cancel that visa and send him home or at least tell him you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.

  52. 52.

    Starfish

    @TBone: The pushback here is fierce because there is a lot of “let’s blame Russia” for a lot of things going on here. Remember, a lot of commenters were being accused of being influenced by Russians because they were not enthusiastic about Biden running for office again.

    If RUSSIA is just a word that gets stuck into people’s anti-Republican word salad, it really isn’t particularly effective.

    What we learned about some of the attempts to influence the last election was that their Facebook memes were deeply weird.

    What we are learning this election is that specific countries are attempting to hack both candidates.

  56. 56.

    Starfish

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Elon Musk is so annoying because he is one of the most transparent billionaires. We know more than we ever wanted to know about the dude and his numerous baby mamas.

    Here is a post some place explaining that he got an EB-5 investor green card.

    This one looks like it is for rich people.

    Increased minimum investments

    The standard minimum investment amount has increased to $1.8 million (from $1 million) to account for inflation.
    The minimum investment in a TEA has increased to $900,000 (from $500,000) to account for inflation.
    Future adjustments will also be tied to inflation (per the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U) and occur every 5 years.

  59. 59.

    StringOnAStick

    The best thing that could happen to Tesla as a company would be for Elon to lose any control over it.  Then they could end the Cybertruck line as a crime against auto design aesthetics, and maybe anyone not on the right end of the horseshoe would consider buying a Tesla sedan again.

    Nah, there’s better EV options now; the only thing keeping Tesla afloat at this point is the slowly deflating stock price.  I’ll be extra paranoid this morning and say that Pooty is throwing money at keeping the price up for his buddy Elmo, along with all the short sales out there.

  61. 61.

    trnc

    @Baud: That NPR story is how the media should do journalism.

    It is certainly a nice respite from their usual logic-washing of republicans, such as they did this morning in their report of DT’s appearance at the economic forum.

  62. 62.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Anne Laurie @ Top:

    My first thought was: The Trump campaign finally figured out which two staffers could most easily be sacrified…

    NPR:

    The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.

    Caporale is a one time aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign.

    Staffer: Mr. Trump, sir, we need …

    Trump: [threateningly] What did you call me?

    Staffer: President Trump, sir –

    Trump: Better.

    Staffer: … we, uh, we need to get rid of two campaign members to appease the lamestream media and move on from this fake news Arlington fake scandal, Mr. President, sir.

    Trump: Who?

    Staffer: Well … it doesn’t matter, sir. Any two random staffers who were there that day will do. So, we were wondering if you had anyone in mind that you want to get rid of?

    Trump: Were you there that day?

    Staffer: [with trepidation] Uh, yes, sir, I was.

    Trump: Was Caporale there?

    Staffer: Yes.

    Trump: Okay, get rid of Caporale. He felt up Melania. Worse, he supported DeSantis.

    Staffer: [with evident relief in his voice] Yes, sir. And the second person?

    Trump: I’ll get back to you on that. What’s your name?

    Staffer: Michel Picard.

    Trump: Right. I’ll get back to you, Picard. You can go now.

    [Trump watches Picard’s back until he’s gone.]

    Trump: [picks up phone] Yeah, Picard’s coming over to tell you we’re getting rid of Caporale over that cemetery thing. Get rid of Picard too. I don’t want anyone around named after a TV character – I’m the only TV star here!

  63. 63.

    VOR

    @piratedan: I saw an attempt at a “stolen valor” attack on Governor Walz this morning on Twitter. Walz was pictured wearing a baseball hat with a camouflage pattern with a logo on the front. It was claimed the logo belonged to a Special Forces group and Walz was never in Special Forces, therefore stolen valor. But in our reality, the hat bears the logo of the Minnesota Twins baseball team – a capital T with a C superimposed on it. The TC stands for Twin Cities, referencing the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

  66. 66.

    MinuteMan

    @TBone: Spocko has a long post up at Digby’s place about the criminality at Arlington that should have been prosecuted by the Army.​
     

    I think it’s more the Army’s fear of being seen as political than fear of Twitler. The same phobia is probably why Garland is pursuing cases against the MAGAt-in-chief so overcautiously while being quick to indict Putin’s Russian national assets. While it’s in the country’s best interests to not have either the DoJ or the DoD become embroiled in politics there’s a point where it gets turned against the organizations and it makes the DoJ and DoD look political by turning a blind eye to blatant offenses.

  67. 67.

    TBone

    @MinuteMan: I posted that link above at #17 but thanks for explaining – you’re probably right!

    However, Spocko’s quote about coddling terrorists still rings so true.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @BretH:

    He speaks so intelligently and uses such proper english.

    NO HE DOESN’T, NOT IN ANY DAMN WAY!

    Ok, one of those lines is true and one is a bald faced lie. Guess which one I think is which…..

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    if it quacks and walks like a duck, it’s a dick duck!

    if it’s shitforbrains and it quacks and walks like a duck it’s really just an asshole.

    FIXIFY

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    In shitforbrains it’s not bullshitting – it’s derangement. He thinks he’s the epitome of male humanity (which in his deranged mind IS humanity) while we all know that he is example A thru Z of complete and utter asshole. He has zero redeeming qualities, as in none, zip, absolutely zero. He is worse than useless. Far worse. He is a parent’s best example of shitty human to not become, act like, follow, believe in, get near, or want to be. He is a parent’s worst fear, in that he may in anyway, shape or form be seen as proper, realistic, positive example to any one’s kids because he’s 200+lb. of complete and utter shit on 2 feet. And now he’s aging out. It might be the stress of being him that’s getting to him, or it might be this is just who he is. It matters not, he’s still pure shit.

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