Trump Keeps Battle Against Grieving Family Alive
Gold Star families – those who have lost a loved one in service to the nation – are demanding an apology from Donald Trump after his repeated attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who stood before the Democratic National Convention last week. Khizr Khan told delegates that, “If it were up to Donald Trump,” his son Humayun, who died in Iraq protecting his fellow soldiers, “never would have been in America.”
In what has become an iconic moment, Khizr Khan suggested Trump had never even read the constitution, and pulled a copy out of his jacket pocket, offering to lend it to the Republican presidential nominee.
“Ours is a sacrifice you will never know. Ours is a sacrifice we would never want you to know,” the letter begins, calling Trump’s comments against the Khan family “repugnant, and personally offensive to us.”
“When you question a mother’s pain, by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice.”
“You are not just attacking us, you are cheapening the sacrifice made by those we lost.”
“You are minimizing the risk our service members make for all of us.”
“This goes beyond politics. It is about a sense of decency,” the letter concludes. “That kind decency you mock as ‘political correctness.'”
Trump attacked Ghazala Khan for standing silent by her husband on stage, suggesting her religion forbade her to speak, and saying, perhaps “she didn’t have anything to say.”Â
On Sunday, Trump compared the sacrifice the Khans made, the loss of their son, to the “sacrifices” he makes, by employing thousands of people and working hard.
Trump has also posted several tweets since Khan’s speech Thursday, including these:
The Khans appeared on CNN Monday morning:
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Image by Matt Johnson via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ