Trump ‘sacrif ices’
Candidate reacts to Muslim father’s remarks.
Donald Trump responded Saturday to criticism from the Muslim father of a fallen soldier, who in an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention said the billionaire businessman had “sacrificed nothing” for the country.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Trump said Khizr Khan, whose son, Humayun, was killed in 2004 by a car bomb in Iraq, was misguided in his criticism. Trump said he had sacrificed too.
“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,” he said.
On stage Thursday, Khan, with his wife, Ghazala, at his side, castigated Trump for his calls to ban Muslims from entering the country. “Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America,” he said, addressing the Republican nominee. “You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
On MSNBC on Friday, Khan called on GOP leaders including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to repudiate Trump. “What he has said, what he has threatened to do … you must say, ‘Enough,’ ” Khan said.
In the ABC News interview, Trump said Khan’s speech was written by Hillary Clinton’s “script writers.”
Trump also suggested that Ghazala Khan, as a Muslim woman, was able only to stand at her husband’s side and was not allowed to speak.
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say .... Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say,” he said.
In an interview with ABC, Ghazala Khan said she had not spoken because she was still mourning her son.
“I am very upset when I heard when he said that I didn’t say anything,” she said. “I was in pain.”