AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The presidential campaigns are digging deep, focused on that endgame - the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. This past week saw tours through Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. CNN got a sit-down interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ladies and gentlemen, the ceremony that you are about to witness is an Army wreath-laying ceremony to be conducted on behalf of the Abbey Gate 13.
DONALD TRUMP: Tulsi and I were at Arlington National Cemetery with the families of service members who lost their lives in the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: When the motorcade arrived, along with several Gold Star family members whose loved ones are buried there, the campaign brought a staffer to film and take photographs. When an Arlington Cemetery official tried to prevent that, she was verbally abused and pushed aside.
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STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Federal law also prevents the use of cemeteries as backgrounds or props for political campaigns. The Trump campaign did it anyways with pictures and now a TikTok video showing Trump and some family members of the deceased posing at headstones.
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JD VANCE: Kamala Harris is disgraceful. If we're to talk about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives, it's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can go to hell.
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TIM WALZ: Some of you in here, and I'm going to say this because I know we're bipartisan. Some of the gray-hairs in here, I know what you're thinking. And I remember it, too, 'cause it's my family. When Republicans used to talk about freedom, they meant it. They meant it. Not anymore. These guys over there - they want government to have the freedom to invade every corner of your life from our union halls to our kids' schools, even our doctor's office. Vice President...
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DANA BASH: Will you appoint a Republican to your cabinet?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Yes, I would.
BASH: Anyone in mind?
HARRIS: No, no one in particular in mind. I got 68 days to go with this election, so I'm not putting the cart before the horse, but I would. I think it's really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it's important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.
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TRUMP: Joe Biden killed those young people because he was incompetent. And then they tell me that I used their graves for public relation services, and I didn't. And I'll tell you what. It was a disgrace. And she was involved. Remember she said she was the last person in the room - right? - when they made the decision. And pulling out was OK, but not pulling out like a bunch of incompetent fools. And that's what they did. We had them in such a great position. But when I took those pictures, it was so beautiful. They were crying. Everybody was crying. They were talking about three years ago... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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