“We have to do everything we can for those families and honor them and be humbled by them”, he said.
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Brian Duffy, head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said his group “will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression”.
The dispute is the latest in a series of missteps by the freewheeling, unorthodox campaign of the NY businessman, who has never held elected political office but who beat 16 rivals to become the Republican presidential nominee for the November 8 election.
Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says Gold Star families of service members killed in war deserve “unconditional love and support” for that sacrifice. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary – and they have also previously criticized Trump over comments he’s made questioning the fairness of a judge because of his Hispanic heritage and his proposal to temporary ban Muslims from entering the country.
Trump provoked outrage among both Democrats and Republicans by his statements in an interview Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and in a later series of tweets critical of the Khans.
It has dominated the news cycle ever since Pakistani immigrant Khizr Khan galvanised the Democratic National Convention last Thursday with a tribute to his dead son in which he rebuked the Republican nominee for having “sacrificed nothing” for the country. The billionaire businessman challenged that assertion and also implied Ghazala Khan’s religion prevented her from speaking. The Republican leaders defended the soldier’s family without mentioning Trump by name.
Trump is scheduled to speak at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg Monday night.
The parents bristled at that suggestion and, in numerous television appearances over the weekend, have said Trump is ignorant about Islam and about their family’s sacrifice. “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”. It comes a week after Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, campaigned in Republican-heavy Waukesha.
In fact, Ghazala Khan says she was too distraught to speak about her killed son.
And Kander’s campaign hit Blunt directly on Monday for not withdrawing his support for Trump.
“If it were me, the easiest thing to do is say, ‘I apologize, ‘ ” Brown told the newspaper.
At least a dozen top Republicans criticized Trump’s comments on Monday, including Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us”, Trump said last summer.
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Trump’s remarks have drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum.
