Trump to Khizr Khan: 'I've Made a Lot of Sacrifices'

Trump responds to blistering speech from father of slain Muslim-American soldier
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2016 2:20 PM CDT
Trump to Khizr Khan: 'I've Made a Lot of Sacrifices'
Donald Trump responded to the Muslim father of a slain Army captain in interviews Friday and Saturday.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The speech by Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim-American Army captain killed in Iraq, was hailed as a high point of this week's Democratic National Convention. In the speech, Khan called out Donald Trump for his proposed Muslim ban and for having "sacrificed nothing and no one" for his country. On Saturday, Trump responded to Khan. "I've made a lot of sacrifices," Trump told ABC News. "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." He also wondered if Khan even wrote his own speech, saying maybe it was the work of Hillary Clinton's speech writers.

Trump also addressed Khan's wife, Ghazala Khan, who stood silently beside her husband during his speech. "She had nothing to say," Trump said. "She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me." It was a reiteration of a point he made late Friday in an interview with the New York Times. It was also a bridge too far, according to Ezra Klein at Vox. Klein says the idea that Ghazala Khan was forbidden from speaking because she is a Muslim is "bullshit." In interviews, Ghazala has said she was too "overwhelmed by grief" to speak. Klein argues Trump used a "speech by the bereaved family of a fallen Muslim soldier" to "slander" them. "This is the gauge of his cruelty," Klein concludes. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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