Trump’s meeting with Gold Star families before his rally on Wednesday came as the Republican presidential nominee looks to push past the backlash he drew in recent days from veterans groups and prominent members of his own party after he criticized another Gold Star family, the parents of a Muslim US soldier slain in Iraq who criticized Trump at the Democratic convention.
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During the Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan expressed his anger that the Republican nominee has “sacrificed nothing and no one”.
None of the three lawmakers said they would disavow Trump’s candidacy. “The story of Capt. Khan is an incredibly inspiring story”.
“If it was up to Donald Trump, [Humayun] never would have been in America”, Khan said, referring to Trump’s proposed Muslim plan. The morning after accepting the Republican nomination at the party’s convention, Trump re-litigated months-old grievances with primary rival Ted Cruz.
On Tuesday, Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said his father’s comments have been “blown out of proportion”. My son is now serving in the US air force.Time and time again, Trump has disrespected our nation’s armed forces and veterans, and his disrespect for Mr. Khan and his family is just an example of that.
Hannity, a longtime supporter of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, immediately pushed back against Trump for his criticism of the former president.
In his statement, McCain recalled how Humayun Khan died, saying that when a suicide bomber aimed his vehicle toward a building housing hundreds of USA soldiers, the captain told his subordinates to stay away, then ran toward it.
In a remarks to television networks on Monday, Khizr Khan said Trump lacked the empathy to be a leader and chided him for throwing the first salvo in their exchange.
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said, “My advice to Donald Trump has been and will continue to be to focus on jobs and national security and stop responding to every criticism whether it’s from a grieving family or Hillary Clinton”. “America’s greatness is built on the principles of liberty and preserved by the men and women who wear the uniform to defend it”.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who has advised Trump, said, “He’ll have to learn to grow out of it”.
Others who have worked with Trump say the only way to ensure he moves on is to wait for him to tire of an issue or get drawn into another matter. “If I were president, his son wouldn’t have died, because I wouldn’t have been in the war, if I was president back then”.
The appeal did not generate any help for Trump. “Our Gold Star families have made a sacrifice that most of us can not even begin to imagine”.
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Trump responded in an interview with ABC’s “This Week”, saying: “She had nothing to say”.
