Trump breaks his silence on the Arlington Cemetery incident: "This was a setup!"
Washington DC - Donald Trump has finally publicly addressed the ongoing scandal surrounding his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery, and he has no plans on taking any of the blame at all.
Earlier this week, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery to honor 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan three years ago.
At some point, an altercation reportedly broke out between members of Trump's staff and an official with the cemetery, who attempted to stop the aids from filming in Section 60, which has strong federal laws prohibiting photography and any political-related actions in the area.
On Thursday, Trump did an interview with MSNBC in which he was asked if his campaign should have shared the content they got on social media despite the rules.
"I don't know what the rules and regulations are. I don't know who did it," Trump claimed, noting that he has "Tiktok people" on his staff.
"It could have been them. It could have been the [Gold Star] parents. It could have been somebody," he continued.
"I really don't know anything about it. All I do is, I stood there, and I said, 'If you'd like to have a picture, we can have a picture.'"
Trump then appeared to suggest that President Joe Biden may have been behind what happened.
"This was a setup by the people in the administration that [thought], 'Oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, and that looks so bad for us,'" he added.
Donald Trump blames Joe Biden again during rally speech
Trump's remarks came the same day that the US Army put out a statement regarding the incident, in which they defended the employee's conduct, accused a Trump staffer of having "pushed" the worker, and confirmed that Trump and everyone that attended the ceremony were aware of the rules regarding photography and politicking on the cemetery grounds.
Shortly after his interview with MSNBC, Trump gave a speech during a campaign rally at a steel plant in Potterville, Michigan, where he shared more about the Arlington incident.
Trump began by mistakenly saying the visit was "yesterday" although it was three days ago, and then went on to blame Biden again.
"This all comes out of Washington, just like all of these prosecutors... these are bad people we're dealing with," Trump said.
"So I go there," he continued, "they ask me to have a picture, and they say I'm campaigning – the one thing I get is plenty of publicity, I don't need that."
"But when you think about it," Trump added, "Joe Biden killed their children by incompetence... [Kamala Harris] killed their children, just as if they had a gun in their hands... and then they accuse me of having a picture taken."
Cover photo: ALMOND NGAN / AFP