A Pakistan-American, Khizr Khan lost his Muslim American soldier son, Capt. Humayun Khan, in Iraq.
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‘Unlike Donald Trump’s wife, I didn’t plagiarize my speech, ‘ Mr. Khan said, referring to how several lines from a Michelle Obama speech found their way into Melania Trump’s address at the Republican convention.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopolous released Saturday, Trump also speculated Khizr Khan’s wife, who stood silently beside her husband on the podium, “maybe wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”.
“If you want to see the best of America, you need to look no further than Army Captain Humayun Khan”, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a video before Khan’s father took the stage.
“I think I’ve done a lot”, he said. “She had nothing to say”.
On Thursday, Khan, with his wife, Ghazala, at his side, castigated Trump for his calls to ban Muslims from entering the country. Khan also questioned if Trump had ever read the Constitution and offered to lend him his copy. “You tell me”, he said in an interview with ABC on Saturday.
Then, addressing Trump directly, Khan demanded, “Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution?” The impassioned and eloquent seven-minute speech – which Khan said he delivered without using a teleprompter – brought some members of the crowd in Philadelphia to tears.
Trump was asked about Khan’s speech by Maureen Dowd for her “lightning round” piece on Trump’s thoughts about the DNC.
He added that no one has been able to convince Trump otherwise on his views of Muslims and other immigrants.
But Khizr Khan’s speech also has prompted a very different type of response from Trump’s comments. You tell me, but a plenty of people have written that.
Khan told Trump that Arlington cemetery is filled with soldiers of “all faiths, genders and ethnicities”. “Many thanks to the Khan family for your sacrifice, we stand with you”, tweeted Karen Finney, a senior spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign. “I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs …”
Ghazala Khan explained on MSNBC last night that it is hard for her to speak publicly about her son Humayun because any time she thinks about him she is too overcome with emotion.
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Trump suggested in two separate interviews that Ghazala Khan had been blocked from speaking. “I think when I can employ thousands and thousands of people, take care of their education, take care of so many things”, Trump said.
