During Tuesday’s Democratic National Convention, service members in American Samoa might have violated military rules.
Each state took part in a virtual roll call, naming the number of votes they gave to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. As two representatives from American Samoa came on screen, what appeared to be two uniformed service members flanked them. One of those representatives was the chairman of American Samoa’s Democratic Party, Aliitama Sotoa.
Uniformed service members are generally prohibited from participating in partisan activity. The Department of Defense says, “All military members, including National Guard and Reserve forces, are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign events.” It appears that members of the American Samoan delegation likely did not receive any special dispensation to have uniformed members of the armed forces in their shot for the virtual event.
In a statement to Townhall, the Pentagon said, “All members of the Armed Forces, including active duty members, members of the reserve component not on active duty, and retired members, are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign or election events.”
This year’s Democratic Party platform states that “Democrats will never use active duty soldiers as political props, and we will never send military forces to suppress Americans exercising their constitutional rights.”
DNC officials told the Military Times that the segment was designed to “celebrate American Samoa’s legacy of military service.”
