New Mexico Governor Hits Trump Over Gold Star Mother Remarks

“I feel bad about the discourse that this campaign, this election campaign has taken”.

Khan was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.

“He wants to be the commander in chief, but to say that the sacrifices he’s made are on par with these families, or even greater than theirs – it’s awful”, he says.

“We’re the families who really live with the price of war, who live with the price of service and honor and duty to country, and all of the things that go with it”, she said. “When someone doesn’t, like Captain Khan, it’s heartbreaking”. Trump stoked outrage by implying Ghazala Khan did not speak while standing alongside her husband at last week’s Democratic convention because she is a Muslim woman.

Naturally, Trump responded to the criticism – and his first instinct was to attack Ghazala, the grieving mother, and her culture.

But McGill’s comments suggest that the anger extends into at least some of the military’s rank and file, too.

Brian Duffy, head of the 1.7-million-member VFW, said in a statement that election year or not, the nation’s oldest and largest war veterans group will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising their right to free speech. “To me, it’s just outright unprofessional”.

Khan said that if Trump were president and enacted his proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims coming to the US, a position Trump has backed away from in recent weeks, his son would have never been allowed into the country.

Others who have worked with Trump say the only way to ensure he moves on is to wait for him to tire of an issue or get drawn into another matter. “Have you been to Arlington cemetery?”

But you don’t need to buy one.

Trump said of Sanders: “He made a deal with the devil”. At home, she said, “I can not even come into the room where his pictures are”.

Pence, who is Trump’s vice presidential running mate, asked the crowd to quiet down, then said about the questioner: “That’s what freedom looks like”.

But many prominent Republicans have continued to speak about Trump’s comments. John McCain and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. “But the real blame here has to be on Hillary Clinton’s and John McCain’s reckless foreign policy” for bringing the United States into war. “Though typical, Sen. Boozman’s silence is unacceptable, and it only serves to enable Mr. Trump to continue his hateful, despicable behavior”, said Eldridge.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said he was “dismayed” by the attacks the Khans “have endured after they spoke about their son’s service and sacrifice”. “A guy that thinks making money is his sacrifice to the country?” For decades, buttons and flags adorned with Gold Stars have been displayed by American families as symbols of the ultimate sacrifice. “There are certain sacrosanct subjects that no amount of word-smithing can fix once crossed”.

A growing chorus of GOP lawmakers chastised Trump for sparring with the Khans, who appeared at the Democratic convention on behalf of Hillary Clinton. “I challenge the nominee to set the example for what our country can and should represent”.

“While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us”, said McCain.

Army Maj. Kamal Kalsi (r.) meets Khizr Khan (c.) and his wife Ghazala Khan backstage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Thursday.

It reminded him of his deployment to Afghanistan, serving at a field hospital in violent Helmand Province.

“I’m not, but they are”, he told a Pentagon news conference in January. “For him to attack a Gold Star family and not understand the grief that Mrs. Khan was going through and why she wouldn’t have spoken, just validated my feelings toward Mr. Trump as an unfeeling, empty person”.