Both conventions last month featured a parade of such everyday Americans – including, at the Democratic convention, the mothers of black men killed in police shootings; and at the Republican gathering, Patricia Smith, who blamed the death of her son, a State Department employee who was killed in Benghazi, Libya, on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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“I don’t want folks to be misled, to listen to the rhetoric and the demagoguery”, Clinton told a crowd of several thousand supporters at a downtown Columbus school during an afternoon campaign stop. “Whoever saw me felt me in their heart”.
Trump, in an ABC interview that aired on Sunday, questioned why Ghazala Khan, mother of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, stood quietly by her husband, Khizr Khan, as he took the stage at last week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds baby cousins Evelyn Kate Keane, 6 months old, and Kellen Campbell, 3 months old, following his speech Friday, July 29, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“He is a black soul”. Khan questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said “you have sacrificed nothing”.
The Republican Presidential candidate responded by suggesting that Mrs Khan hadn’t spoken because she was forbidden to as a Muslim woman.
Clinton’s comments came after Trump refused to back down from his criticism of the Gold Star parents’ remarks. The candidate also tried to change the subject to the war itself: “Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!”
For much of the weekend, Trump found himself squaring off against the Khans, whose convention appearance was an emotional high point for many Democrats.
“I was very scared”, Khan wrote.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”, Trump suggested that the people of Crimea would rather be part of Russian Federation. I’ve had tremendous success.
“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices”.
Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, said he sympathizes with the Khan family but that their loss is not the issue at hand.
“She was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”.
He said that running for president does not entitle Trump “to disrespect” the relatives of soldiers killed in combat. “My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. He is void of decency, he has a dark heart”.
“They have advised him, they have counseled him. he had promised them to mend his divisive ways, harmful ways, hurtful manner and policies”.
For Trump, returning fire on the Khans was by instinct and practice the right thing to do.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union”, he said, “It is majority leader’s and speaker’s moral, ethical obligation to not worry about the votes, but repudiate him, withdraw the support”.
McConnell praised Capt. Khan as an “American hero”, while Ryan noted that many Muslim Americans have served “valiantly” in the USA military. But he says he agrees with the Khans that a travel ban based on religion – one idea previously floated by Trump – is “simply contrary to American values”.
Ghazala Khan later said the outspoken billionaire was ignorant of Islam and of sacrifice.
In a statement late on Saturday, Trump praised Captain Khan as “a hero to our country”, adding, “we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe”.
But Trump took issue with Khan´s convention night speech, including his claim that the billionaire candidate had never read the United States constitution.
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Clinton and Kaine took shots at Trump, too, criticizing his campaign as being heavy on promises but light on details or specific plans.
