Schumer Slams Trump For Remarks Directed At Parents Of Muslim Soldier
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined the conversation Sunday in the war of words between Republican presidential candidate and the bereaved parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain.
At an unrelated news conference, Schumer defended the parents of all fallen soldiers.
"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.
Gold Star Families is an organization founded by people who lost family members in the Iraq War.
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.
Trump took issue with the fact that Ghazala Khan did not speak.
"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.''
Trump fired back Sunday. 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.
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