Maggie Haberman joins CNN on Aug. 28, 2024

claiming that they tried to physically block campaign staff we should note that federal law prohibits any campaign or election related activities within Army National military cemeteries which is notable because the Trump campaign posted this video on Tik Tok promoting his visit to the cemetery we didn't lose one person in 18 months and then they took over that disaster the leaving of Afghanistan my source tonight is New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman so Maggie you're reporting this hour on new reaction to that Tik Tok we just showed tell us more about what you're learning right so P my colleagues and I have reporting from another family uh that has a a soldier buried in that section 60 which is a very uh Restricted Section it is it is for people for soldiers uh who were uh who died after in Iraq and Afghanistan for the most part this is a family who the soldier in question he was a a master sergeant uh Andrew Marcano he died by suicide in in 2020 and he had served multiple tours uh combat tours uh including in Afghanistan but not only and his grave site was caught in pictures As Trump was posing with the grave site of another sergeant uh at the same section now that other Sergeant's family had indeed said they would like Trump there as as you noted these these gold star families welcomed him as you also noted the rules of the cemetery are that uh campaign photography campaign filming is not permitted uh you know photographs that are going to be used for election purposes and the Marcano family certainly was not contacted or asked for this but his gravestone is now in that Tik Tok video from behind that Trump uh posted on Tik Tok he's also his the front of the grave site with his name is in pictures that were posted online with Trump posing with a thumbs up and you know they were very clear uh the family in a statement to us that they they really support this other family and other families uh that lost people in the abig gate bombing uh during uh in Cabell in Afghanistan uh but that this is a restricted area and that they would hope that uh everyone would be respectful of that it was a restrained statement but it was very clearly displeased yeah and what is the Trump campaign saying to this this family to your reporting when we asked them to respond they would not directly address what the family said uh when asked about the Tik Tok video they wouldn't address whether they would continue using uh the gravestone images just saying uh something to the effect of you know we continue to honor the wishes of the gold star families uh who supported him the former president Trump being there which again you know they there families are not a monolith uh when it comes to military families when it comes to families connected to any tragedy um people don't see things the same the broader issue here is there is a federal law in place and so far the Trump campaign has yet to provide documentation of its claim that it was permitted to do this and there was an agreement right because Trump team is suggesting that they actually have video to prove what they say happened why not release it I'd like them to I hope they would release it they should release it if if it they have videos suggesting this shows that the confrontation is not as described they've claimed that they had permission to be there there is nothing to support that I want to uh add one other note Pam that was important from our story tonight uh which is that we had reporting that the official in question at Arlington Cemetery she had filed a report uh but then she declined to press charges and military officials said that she was afraid that she was going to be retaliated against by Trump's supporters it's worth noting that the Trump campaign targeted her uh suggesting she was having a mental health episode well Trump for his part also went on a reposting spree today as I know you've seen Maggie uh including including one that kind of makes my my stomach full sick uh it involves both Hillary Clinton and KLA Harris with a crude sexual reference that suggested that Harris used sexual favors to advance her career uh we are not going to show that post and the Harris campaign responded to all his truthing saying quote Donald Trump is out of his mind but what does this signal to you about Trump's thinking and how kamla Harris is getting under his skin well there's two things going on Pam one is that Trump just likes posting things like this we have seen him do this for years this is you know not this extreme this is this is pretty explicit um but he has he has toyed around the edges of this kind of thing for a very long time and he did something recently a similar type of uh repost uh on social media along these lines I so I think part of it is it just plays to what he wants to be talking about and enjoys part of it is I think that he believes that this is going to amplify or people around him believe this will amplify by these claims of his and get people talking about them and that is always the risk in in talking about these things is that it does spread it to a broader audience but I think he has been trying to bait kamla Harris and her supporters into a fight about race a fight about gender and that's what this speaks to and I think that they have for the most part ignored it all right Maggie hberman thank you so much abex JD van pushing back tonight at criticism over another remark that he once made about childless America