The Democratic Party is trying to explain why United States military personnel took part in the American Samoa delegation’s roll-call vote Tuesday night during the convention.
Two soldiers stood behind a pair of American Samoa Democrats as they promoted the island territory and announced its votes for Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee. Uniformed service members are generally banned from participating in partisan political activity.
Democratic National Convention spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa told reporters Wednesday the personnel’s inclusion was an error.
“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.”
The Army announced Wednesday it was investigating the soldiers, who are assigned to the 9th Mission Support Command.
The Department of Defense stipulates, “All military members, including National Guard and Reserve forces, are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign events.”
Democrats have repeatedly criticized President Trump for using armed forces as “props.” Their complaints reached a fever pitch in June after his administration relied on law enforcement to move demonstrators who had gathered outside White House to protest against racial injustice
This cycle’s Democratic 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.”
