6 Unanswered Questions About Trump’s Arlington Cemetery Fiasco

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

What We Still Don’t Know

1. What does the Trump campaign video show? The Trump campaign initially said it was “prepared to release footage” it had of the incident that would show what happened, but a day later it said it was “weighing its options” and to date it hasn’t released the relevant footage.
2. Who are the two Trump campaign staffers who had a verbal and physical altercation with the cemetery official? The identity of the campaign staffers who verbally abused and aggressively brushed by the cemetery official have still not been made public, and their exact roles with the campaign remain unclear.
3. What does the report filed by the cemetery official say? The Army has closed the case because the cemetery official didn’t want to press charges for fear of retaliation from MAGA world, but not before the cemetery official involved filed a report with the police department at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
4. Who else witnessed the incident and what did they see? As the photo above suggests, there were numerous other people in attendance before and after the incident, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), families of the fallen, campaign staffers, and Secret Service. We have limited accounts from them of what transpired.
5. What did the Secret Service do, if anything, about the incident? Trump was under Secret Service protection at the time of the incident but it’s unclear what, if anything, agents witnessed, whether they intervened, or how the agency handles a difficult situation like this.
6. What was the content of the official warnings to the Trump campaign ahead of time not to turn the cemetery ceremony into a campaign event? The Army says it was clear in advance with participants about the prohibitions against political activities on cemetery grounds, but we haven’t seen those warnings, what exactly they said, or what form they took.

Latest Developments In Arlington National Cemetery Incident

Over the past 24 hours:

• The Army released an unusual statement defending the cemetery official involved in the physical altercation with the Trump campaign staffer while trying to enforce the rules and regulations for the national shrine.
• Senate Democrats began to rouse themselves to look into the matter. The Senate Armed Service Committee is the committee of jurisdiction.
• House Democrats also expressed an interest in investigating the matter, with some members calling for the release of the report filed by the cemetery worker. Both chambers are on August recess.

Trump Prosecution Watch

• In an interview with CBS News, a remarkably candid Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke about the Supreme Court’s egregious presidential immunity decision: “I was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances, when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same.” 
• Donald Trump has launched another long-shot effort to move the New York hush money case to federal court in order to avoid sentencing following his conviction in the case.

Suboptimal

NYT: “As Speaker Nancy Pelosi was evacuated from the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while the complex was under attack, her motorcade passed by a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee headquarters that law enforcement had yet to render safe, according to video and analysis released this week by House Republicans.”

The Election Story Nobody Wants to Talk About

Rick Perlstein interviews David Neiwert about the threat of political violence by right-wing extremists as we head into the 2024 election (plus a generous shoutout to TPM).

Abortion Watch

• Having it both ways: Trump suggested Thursday that he would vote for the Florida ballot initiative that would ease the state’s six-week abortion ban, but his campaign quickly put out a statement declaring that Trump had not yet taken a position on the ballot measure.
• Be skeptical: Trump said Thursday, without offering much in the way of detail, that he if elected he would require private insurers and the government to cover the costs of IVF.

Quote Of The Day

2024 Ephemera

• WSJ poll: Harris leads Trump 48%-47%, a flip from the last WSJ survey in July, when Trump led by 2 percentage points. It’s the first time that Biden or Harris has led Trump in the WSJ poll since April 2023.
• In the new Democratic ticket’s first joint interview, Harris said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
• NYT: Donors Quietly Push Harris to Drop Tax on Ultrawealthy

Thune Busted For Playing Both Sides Of The Fence

Politico’s Playbook catches Sen. John Thune (R-SD) taking center stage at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a home-state water project that received $152 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Thune voted against.

For Your Radar …

A federal judge in Texas who is a favorite of conservative legal movers and shakers, including Republican attorneys general who frequently shop for venue in his court, has denied Media Matters’ motion to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit against it in a thin opinion that clears the way for the case to go trial in April.

UVa Suspends ‘Woke’ Tours After Conservative Alum Complain

NYT: “The University of Virginia said on Thursday that it had suspended a longstanding campus tour service, but said the move was unrelated to complaints that the tours cast a negative historical spotlight on the school, particularly its relationship to slavery.”

Have A Great Holiday Weekend!

Some Louisiana roots music to get you in the spirit:

Morning Memo will be back Tuesday.

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