Trump Again Defends Criticism Of Parents Of Muslim Soldier
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Refusing to back down, Donald Trump on Sunday defended his criticism of the bereaved parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain by complaining on Twitter that the father "viciously attacked'' him in his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
"Am I not allowed to respond?'' Trump tweeted. "Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!''
It was the latest bitter rhetorical volley between the defiant Republican candidate and the family of a fallen soldier since the two parties concluded their major conventions last week and the nation looked ahead to a close election this November. Wasting no time, Trump headed to Colorado -- a key swing state -- while Hillary Clinton took running mate Sen. Tim Kaine on a bus-tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania.
At last week's Democratic National Convention, Pakistan-born Khizr Khan told the story of his son who received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart after being killed in Iraq in 2004. Khan questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said "you have sacrificed nothing.''
During the speech, Khan's wife, Ghazala, stood quietly by his side.
"If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,'' Trump said, in an interview with ABC's "This Week."
Ghazala Khan responded Sunday in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, saying talking about her son's death 12 years ago is still hard for her. When her husband asked if she wanted to speak at the convention, she said she could not.
"When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant,'' she wrote. "If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.''
Her husband told television talk shows on Sunday that he appreciated Trump's later comments that his son was a hero but that he had no "moral compass.''
``He is a black soul,'' Khizr Khan said.
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.''
At one point, Trump had disputed Khan's criticism that the billionaire businessman has "sacrificed nothing and no one'' for his country.
"I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures,'' Trump said.
Trump also took issue with Khan's contention that a Trump administration would not allow him in the country, CBS News' Craig Boswell reported.
"He doesn't know that. I saw him. He was – you know, very emotional, and probably looked like a nice guy to me," Trump said.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton slammed Trump for his comments Sunday. She said Trump repaid the ``ultimate sacrifice'' of a U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq with insults and degrading comments about Muslims.
On a post-convention bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, Clinton said Trump has a ``total misunderstanding'' of American values and has inflamed divisions in American society.
``I don't know where the boundaries are. I don't know where the bottom is,'' she told reporters during a campaign stop at a cheese barn in Ohio.
``I do tremble before those who would scapegoat other Americans,'' she told parishioners in a Cleveland church on Sunday morning. ``That's just not how I was raised.''
Clinton also issued a tweet defending Ghazala Khan for standing up to Trump.
Meanwhile in statements released Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned any criticism of Muslim Americans who serve their country and rejected the idea of a Muslim travel ban -- an idea proposed by Trump earlier in the campaign. But neither statement mentioned Trump by name or repudiated him.
McConnell praised Capt. Khan as an ``American hero,'' while Ryan noted that many Muslim Americans have served ``valiantly'' in the U.S. military.
``Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice -- and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan -- should always be honored. Period,'' Ryan said.
Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, issued a blistering statement of his own, saying anything short of revoking their endorsements of Trump was ``cowardice'' on the part of McConnell and Ryan.
``This shouldn't be hard,'' Reid said. ``Donald Trump is a sexist and racist man who insults Gold Star parents, stokes fear of Muslims and sows hatred of Latinos. He should not be president and Republican leaders have a moral responsibility to say so?.''
"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star Parents -- with honor and respect -- the feelings of 95 percent of Americans who are just aghast that Donald Trump could say something like this about a grieving mom who lost her son," Schumer said.
John Kasich, the Ohio governor who sought the GOP presidential nomination, said on Twitter, "There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect. Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family.''
Trump vice presidential nominee Mike Pence had not issued a statement late Sunday.
Late Saturday night, Trump released a statement calling Humayun Khan "a hero'' but disputing his father's characterization.
"While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things,'' said Trump.
Trump's rebuke seemed strange in the world of politics where officials only speak well of families whose loved ones die in service to their country. When Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, staged prolonged protests on the war, then-President George W. Bush responded by saying that the nation grieves every death.
When asked about the mother of a State Department official killed in Benghazi, Libya, who blamed Clinton for her son's death, Clinton told "Fox News Sunday'' that her "heart goes out'' to the families and that she didn't "hold any ill feeling for someone'' who has lost a child and recalls events differently.
Clinton used her first television interview since officially clinching the Democratic nomination to cast Trump as dangerously pro-Russia and an unknown quantity for U.S. voters. She said she realizes that people often see a "caricature'' of herself as a politician but that she hopes American voters will review her track record as a U.S. senator and secretary of State.
"He's not temperamentally fit to be president and commander in chief,'' she said.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
