Gov. Greg Abbott is coming to the defense of a fallen Muslim soldier’s family, which has been under attack from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Advertisement
Trump has previously said McCain shouldn’t be regarded as a war hero for being imprisoned in Vietnam, saying “I like people who weren’t captured”. “Mr. Trump did not”. His son, Humayun Khan, died in the Iraq war in 2004.
Khizr Khan, the soldier’s father, was a guest on “New Day” on CNN on Monday with his wife Ghazala Khan, and delivered the criticism of Trump amid an extended plea for unity and empathy.
Gold Star families in East Tennessee say their emotions are mixed.
He wrote, “Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC (Democratic National Convention) and is now all over T.V. doing the same – Nice!”
His remarks caused many Republicans including Senator John McCain to distance themselves from Trump, particularly as the exchange between Trump and Khan has rumbled on.
“In his eyes, he thinks that he can criticize people but no one else can criticize” him, Khan told PBS NewsHour co-anchor Judy Woodruff in a joint interview with his wife, Ghazala Khan.
Those comments sparked a further firestorm, but Ghazala Khan said she wasn’t offended. “She probably, maybe she wasn’t allow (ed) to have anything to say. It was respectful. It did express condolences to the family for their loss”.
Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Roy Blunt, Pat Toomey, Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, and Rob Portman all also distanced themselves from Trump’s remarks on the Khans. “I lost a son. I feel bad about the discourse that this campaign, this election campaign has taken”.
Trump hit back saying he’s being unfairly attacked. She can set you on fire. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.
“This goes beyond politics”.
“Please”, he said. “Show some decency”.
Speaking in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal, Kooyenga said Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have failed to articulate policy views and to bring Americans together. Few have specifically condemned Trump, whose proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the US was at the heart of Khizr Khan’s speech.
Khan blasted Trump last week at the Democratic National Convention in an emotional speech in which he’d claimed that had Trump been president when he and his family applied to immigrate to the USA, they would have been denied entry. “Any decent American listening to that understands how he is defining sacrifice”.
Advertisement
“And what has he heard from Donald Trump?”. In this case, Wagner said the comments might have been made with a political calculation.
