MSNBC's Morning Joe calls out Trump campaign's “grotesque” behavior at Arlington National Cemetery
Eddie Glaude Jr.: “We can't presume that he's been honest. We have to presume he's being dishonest.”
Published
Citation From the August 30, 2024, edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe
SAM STEIN (MANAGING EDITOR, THE BULWARK): As a grand matter, this is the problem, I think, which is that there are very few places that are, that we try to keep immune from partisan politics. And this place is now being sullied by the Trump campaign because of their insistence that this person, this official, was in the wrong. You could have de-escalated. It could have been a relatively nonstory, but in typical Trump fashion, they chose to just, you know, fight it through, and here we are.
WILLIE GEIST (CO-HOST): Yeah, Eddie, that's what it is. At the end of the day, the behavior is just grotesque. I mean, ask yourself – knowing what we know about Donald Trump for these last 10 years at least, or go back further if you want – if you believe an employee at Arlington National Cemetery, sacred ground in the United States, trying to enforce rules that restrict video and political ads inside a cemetery. Or Donald Trump and his campaign and the people who are saying, as Sam pointed out, that this person was mentally ill, throwing that out there, that they were having some kind of a mental health episode and not just doing his or her job. And it tells you something that this employee did not want to press charges because the employee didn't want his or her name attached to something because he or she knew the threats that would come with that from Trump's side.
EDDIE GLAUDE JR. (PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR): Right, Willie, and, you know, I think our default position when it comes to Donald Trump and his statements should be, let's prove to me that you're telling me the truth, right? We can't presume that he's been honest. We have to presume he's being dishonest, it seems to me. The evidence seems to suggest that, right. And so, and then it's just the level of what is revealed at the level of character, that he would continue in this ongoing desecration of these very, very sacred spaces in our national history. So, I think we need to, shall we say, cast doubt on the truthfulness of his claim and the campaign's claim, and let the facts play themselves out, Willie. I mean, this is another example of his character, my man.