Father Of Muslim Soldier: Trump Needs To Find 'Empathy'
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Advised that Donald Trump was watching, the father of a decorated Muslim Army captain killed in Iraq said on television Monday that Trump needs to find more "empathy" and find a way to work together with others.
Khizr Khan and is wife also said they would like to step away from the public feud with Donald Trump that has erupted over their comments about him at the Democratic convention.
"I really want to maintain mine and my family's dignity. I spoke what was appropriate, and if he's watching, just imagine – there is no need to comment the way he commented, that initiated this conversation. I again say, we want to maintain our dignity. We want to maintain my family's dignity; my son's dignity, and his sacrifice," Khizr Khan said of Trump on CNN Monday. "And he should listen to America; what America and the world is telling about the remarks; about the lack of empathy, and that's all I wish to convey to him – that a good leader has one trait."
Khan said there are dangerous people and groups in the world that do need to be stopped, and from which America needs to be protected. But he said Trump needs to know that it does not start and end there.
"Donald Trump needs to sit with his advisers and portray to this world that he is empathetic. You solve the problems with empathy; putting people together. There are bad people among us, but there are good people among us as well," he said. "You gather good people to get rid of bad people, but you do not malign the whole religion; the whole culture."
Khan also told CNN Monday: "We want to be out of this controversy. That is not our style. This is not our path.'' He said "there was no need'' for Trump to comment further, saying "We want to maintain our dignity.''
His wife, Ghazala Khan, also addressed Trump's comments suggesting she was silent at the Democratic National Convention because the Muslim religion would not allow her to speak.
"My religion or my family or my culture never stopped me from saying what I want to say," Ghazala Khan said. "I have all the rights as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter.'''
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Trump complained on Twitter Monday, saying Khan "viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!"
In a second tweet Monday, Trump said: "This story is not about Mr. Khan, who is all over the place doing interviews, but rather RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM and the U.S. Get smart!"
Khan and his wife have made multiple television appearances since last week's Democratic convention, when Khan criticized Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.
At the convention, Pakistan-born Khan told the story of his son, Humayun, who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He also questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said "you have sacrificed nothing.''
Trump later disputed Khan's criticism.
"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.
The GOP presidential nominee also stoked outrage by implying that Ghazala Khan did not speak alongside her husband at the convention because they're Muslim.
"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,'' Trump said in an interview with ABC's "This Week.''
Trump, who had no campaign events scheduled this weekend, released a statement late Saturday night 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.
In interviews Sunday, Khan thanked Trump for calling his son a hero, but said Trump is being "disingenuous'' because of his campaign rhetoric.
"I want his family to counsel him, teach him some empathy," he told CNN. "He is a black soul. And this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country."
Khan said Trump "has no knowledge, no awareness."
"For this candidate for presidency to not be aware of the respect of a Gold Star Mother standing there, and he had to take that shot at her, this is height of ignorance," Khan said. "This is why I showed him that Constitution. Had he read that, he would know what status a Gold Star Mother holds in this nation."
Trump responded with a tweet Sunday saying he was "viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention."
"Am I not allowed to respond?" he said. "Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!"
Ghazala Khan herself spoke out on 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.
"I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun," she wrote in the Post. "Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. Does [Trump] really need to wonder why I did not speak?"
The outcry has been swift and bipartisan.
On Monday, Republican Sen. John McCain said in a statement that the fact Trump won his party's nomination doesn't give him "unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.''
McCain added pointedly: "I'd like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Khan: thank you for immigrating to America. We're a better country because of you.''
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri advised Trump to "focus on jobs and national security and stop responding to every criticism whether it's from a grieving family or Hillary Clinton.''
Blunt said the Khans "deserve to be heard and respected.''
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?''
On a post-convention bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, Democratic rival Hillary 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.
Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, also issued a statement that appears designed to put some space between the two men atop the GOP ticket.
The father of a Marine, Pence said that he and Trump believe Capt. Humayun Khan is a hero and his family "should be cherished by every American.''
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