Trump cites his own ‘sacrifices’
Republican hits back after criticism from war hero’s dad
Donald Trump pushed back against the Muslim parents of a fallen U.S. war hero after their Democratic National Convention appearance, in which they questioned the Republican presidential candidate’s level of personal sacrifice.
Trump said he had “sacrificed” for the U.S. by employing “thousands and thousands of people.” He also suggested that the mother of army Capt. Humayan Khan didn’t speak alongside her husband in Philadelphia because she was forbidden to, as a Muslim.
“Who wrote that? Did Hillary’s script writers write it?” Trump said in an interview with ABC News that will air in full on Sunday’s This Week.
“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard,” Trump said in a partial transcript made available by the network.
Khizr Khan, a lawyer with an advanced degree from Harvard Law School who lives in Charlottesville, Va., told the New York Times that he wrote his own speech with no input from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump’s been put on the defensive by the emotional testimony Khan gave about his son, an American Muslim soldier killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004. Khan spoke in prime time on the final night of the conference, minutes before Chelsea Clinton took the stage in Philadelphia to introduce her mother as the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Republican’s campaign has added campaign stops for Monday in Harrisburg, Penn., and Columbus, Ohio, two cities visited on a threeday tour through those swing states by Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. The comments to ABC were Trump’s first response to Khan, who said while his son was killed trying to protect the U.S., Trump had “sacri- ficed nothing.”
“I think 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. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot,” Trump told ABC.