Khizr Khan delivered a stirring speech at last week’s Democratic National Convention in which he mourned his son, Humayun, an Army captain killed by a suicide bomber in 2004.
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Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim U.S. soldier, is an immigration attorney whose specialty is a program that critics say allows immigrants to buy their way in the United States.
“Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same – Nice!”
One Republican member of the Texas congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, said in a prepared statement that he is “dismayed at the attacks Khizr and Ghazala Khan have endured after they spoke about their son’s service and sacrifice”.
“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents”, McCain said in the statement.
“You have sacrificed nothing…and no one”, Khan told a national audience at the convention.
Senator Ron Johnson, from the battleground state of Wisconsin, said “Capt. Humayun Khan, and all the Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, deserve our deepest respect and gratitude”.
On Monday morning, Senator John McCain issued a sharply-worded statement condemning Trump’s remarks and calling on the GOP nominee to “set an example for our country and the future of the Republican Party”.
Rubio, who supports Trump’s presidential campaign against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton despite some major policy disagreements with Trump, was more circumspect. No Republicans, however, withdrew their support from Trump and a few defended the Khan family while not mentioning Trump by name.
“So whether it is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, I don’t believe they have lost a child”, she said.
Indeed, some Republicans said privately that it was the timing of this flare-up that had them on edge- the spectacle of their candidate tangling with a military family just three months before Election Day.
The Donald retaliated with characteristic bombast on Sunday, suggesting that Khan’s wife was silent because “she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”. “But let’s get some facts straight”, he said. He was proud to serve, and I am proud to know him.
“I requested Sharon to introduce me, because I understood that our Gold Star families have made a sacrifice that most of us can’t even begin to imagine”.
“As commander-in-chief, I’m pretty exhausted of some folks trash-talking America’s military and troops”, he said.
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Sen. Bob Corker’s office said he “is proud of our men and women in uniform, including Captain Khan, who courageously gave his life in defense of our country”. Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, said he sympathizes with the Khan family but that their loss is not the issue at hand.
