The Army announced that it will be investigating two soldiers who appeared in uniform in a video filmed for the Democratic National Convention.
Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Emanuel Ortiz confirmed to the Military Times that the Army had started an investigation into the soldiers who appeared in uniform while standing in a video alongside the Democratic delegation from American Samoa during the convention on Tuesday evening. Ortiz noted that the two individuals are assigned to the 9th Mission Support Command.
“Wearing a uniform to a partisan political event like this is prohibited,” Ortiz said. “The Army follows the Department of Defense’s longstanding and well-defined policy regarding political campaigns and elections to avoid the perception of DoD sponsorship, approval or endorsement of any political candidate, campaign or cause.”
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the appearance of the uniformed soldiers was an “oversight.”
“That shot was an oversight,” she said. “Each state was asked to highlight the issues and the values to their locations and to their communities. And that is one that American Samoa delegation wanted to highlight, and so, again, the production of that was just an oversight.”
