Trump ratchets up Arlington denial just as the men involved are named

NPR has released the names of the two members of Donald Trump’s campaign team who physically and verbally assaulted a woman on the staff at Arlington National Cemetery last Monday. One of those men is deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale, who was also the “project manager” of Trump’s rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

When NPR originally broke the story about how members of Trump’s staff shoved aside a cemetery worker to film in the highly sensitive area of the cemetery designated as Section 60, they withheld the names. However, since then Trump’s team has denied that such an altercation took place, saying “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.” 

No video has been produced, but members of Trump’s team have repeatedly insulted the woman involved, saying that she was “suffering from a mental health episode,” is “a disgrace,” and a “despicable individual.”

On Tuesday, Trump declared that the entire event at Arlington was a “made-up story” by Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris. So now he’s not only denying it but contradicting his own team. And all that seems to have been the breaking point for NPR.