Trump’s angry new tirade about Arlington scandal should wake up Democrats

These questions are answerable. The woman reportedly filed an incident report with military authorities before declining to press charges. Arlington is administered by the military through the Office of Military Cemeteries. The Senate and House Armed Services committees have oversight jurisdiction there. Senator Tim Kaine and Representative Gerry Connolly, both Democrats of Virginia and respective members of those committees, have called on the military to provide the report and release more information.

In addition, staffers on the Senate Armed Services Committee have been communicating directly with Army officials about the incident and are in the process of seeking and receiving information in the report about what happened, a congressional aide told me. Meanwhile, senior Democrats in the House of Representatives are privately pressing Army officials to be more explicit about what laws or regulations they believe were broken and to provide more details about what happened, another aide said, noting that Democratic staffers are encountering resistance, which is making them frustrated.

Some Democrats may be wary of addressing this, given that Trump is acting as if the episode was just about honoring the wishes of the families of the fallen. It’s clearly true that those families wanted Trump there, and given those very real sensitivities, you can understand why the military is trying to de-escalate this standoff.