Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr and New York Times counterpart David Brooks agreed on Friday’s PBS News Hour that Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery was “really one of the lowest political moments” they could recall.
Host Geoff Bennett set the scene by recalling that “The Army said in a statement, a rare statement, ‘that the campaign was made aware of federal laws prohibiting political activity at the cemetery.’ And they confirmed the reporting that a campaign staff — Trump campaign staffer—abruptly pushed aside an employee of the cemetery. This was a female employee who, according to the Times, didn't want to press charges because she was afraid of retaliation from Trump supporters.”
Bennett should have added that the campaign claims it had permission to bring a photographer and that Trump was invited by Gold Star families who lost loved ones during President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
With vital context missing, Stohr began, “You know, there was a time that being disrespectful in any way at Arlington National Cemetery, one of the most sacred places in our nation, would have put an end to a political career.”
She continued, “But we have seen Donald Trump time and time again disparage members of the military, Gold Star families. And so this seems par for the course. I really would love to return to a time where people would look at this in a bipartisan way, in a nonpartisan way, say this is absolutely outrageous. He is not an official at the moment. He is a civilian. He had no business being there.”
Finally, Stohr claimed, “He certainly didn't have any business trying to shoot a video, a campaign video, that would have knocked Kamala Harris for not being there. I mean, it's really one of the lowest political moments that I have seen in my 20-plus years in covering politics.”
Brooks concurred, “Yeah, lowest political Trump moment I have seen in the last 48 hours, I think. You know, one of the things that strikes me, obviously, it's to transgress Arlington as a serious thing. But one of the things that strikes me is, will it have a political effect? And the answer is no. And that's partly because people are used to Trump. They like Trump. But partly it's just because of the change in our politics.”
Wrapping up, Brooks further lamented, “When George H.W. Bush was running for president in 1988, he went into his convention 17 points down and, obviously, he went on to win. So that's when you could have these big public swings in public opinions, that daily events really mattered. That's no longer the case.”
Another reason why daily events might not matter as much as they used it is because voters don’t trust the media to give them the full picture, like PBS declined to do on Friday.
Here is a transcript for the August 30 show:
PBS News Hour
8/30/2024
7:44 PM ET
Geoff Bennett: In the time that remains, I want to put a marker on something that happened this week, the U.S. Army issuing a stark rebuke of the Trump campaign over this incident at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Army said in a statement, a rare statement, “that the campaign was made aware of federal laws prohibiting political activity at the cemetery.” And they confirmed the reporting that a campaign staff — Trump campaign staffer— abruptly pushed aside an employee of the cemetery. This was a female employee who, according to the Times, didn't want to press charges because she was afraid of retaliation from Trump supporters.
Kimberly, your thoughts on all this?
KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: You know, there was a time that being disrespectful in any way at Arlington National Cemetery, one of the most sacred places in our nation, would have put an end to a political career.
But we have seen Donald Trump time and time again disparage members of the military, Gold Star families. And so this seems par for the course. I really would love to return to a time where people would look at this in a bipartisan way, in a nonpartisan way, say this is absolutely outrageous. He is not an official at the moment. He is a civilian. He had no business being there.
And he certainly didn't have any business trying to shoot a video, a campaign video, that would have knocked Kamala Harris for not being there. I mean, it's really one of the lowest political moments that I have seen in my 20-plus years in covering politics.
BENNETT: David?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, lowest political Trump moment I have seen in the last 48 hours, I think. You know, one of the things that strikes me, obviously, it's to transgress Arlington as a serious thing. But one of the things that strikes me is, will it have a political effect? And the answer is no. And that's partly because people are used to Trump. They like Trump. But partly it's just because of the change in our politics.
And so when George H.W. Bush was running for president in 1988, he went into his convention 17 points down and, obviously, he went on to win. So that's when you could have these big public swings in public opinions, that daily events really mattered. That's no longer the case.
