A Trump staffer has come under fire for mocking Joe Biden after the former vice president visited the grave of late family members in Delaware on Sunday.
Francis Brennan, Mr Trump's campaign director of strategic response, appeared to criticise Mr Biden, 77, for not speaking to the media while walking through the cemetry at Brandywine church in Wilmington, where his late son Beau, first wife Neilia, and daughter Naomi are buried.
Posting a message to Twitter on Sunday evening, Mr Brennan sarcastically wrote: "REPORTER: 'Mr. Vice President come talk to us.' Joe Biden just keeps meandering along," next to a video of Mr Biden walking through the graveyard, in which the Democratic presidential candidate can be seen waving to waiting camera crews.
Beau Biden, an Iraq veteran, and former Delaware attorney general, died from brain cancer in 2015 aged 46. Neilia and Naomi Biden were killed in a car accident 1972.
A host of high-profile figures criticised Mr Brennan over the remarks, which came just days after the president was accused of calling Americans who died in wars “losers” and “suckers” - claims he denies.
"It’s a cemetery. Where his son is buried. Are you human?" tweeted California Democrat Eric Swalwell.
US actress Mia Farrow said: "Joe Biden was visiting his son’s grave. You are not even human".
"This is the director of strategic response for the Trump campaign mocking Joe Biden for walking through the graveyard where his son is buried after leaving church this morning while Donald Trump spent his day on the golf course," wrote Andrew Weinstein, chair of the Democrats Lawyers’ Council.
While Mr Biden had been remembering his late family members over Labor Day weekend, the president played golf, reportedly visiting the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, both on Saturday and Sunday.
The president was on the defensive throughout the weekend over what critics said was a "pattern of disrespect towards the US military following media reports on Friday that he had disparaged fallen veterans.
A report in the Atlantic alleged that the president dimissed a potential visit to an American military cemetery in France in 2018, saying “why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
The president said on Friday night that John Kelly, his former chief of staff, “could have been” a source for the claims, which could harm the Trump campaign's November reelection bid.
During a White House press briefing, Mr Trump was asked if he thought Mr Kelly, who served as a marine general, was one of the unnamed sources quoted in the article.
“It could have been a guy like a John Kelly. You look at some of his news conferences, what happened to him, he got eaten alive," he said. “He was unable to handle the pressure of this job.”
Democratic and Republican opponents alike seized on the comments. Former secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, a Republican, told ABC's 'This Week' that the remarks, if true, were "despicable".
Mr Hagel said the reports were "credible" because they were consistent with previous public remarks Trump had made denigrating military personnel, including former US defense secretary James Mattis, as well as US senator John McCain.
Additional reporting by Reuters
