How in the hell did Donald Trump get into an argument with the family of a dead hero?
Every time he opens his mouth to rebut the father of a decorated soldier killed in Iraq who called him out for his Muslim immigration policy during the DNC, he comes off looking more callous while raising the stature of those he is criticizing.
He can’t win.
On CNN’s “State of the Nation” on Sunday, Khizr Khan said that Trump has a “black soul” which makes him “totally unfit for the leadership of this country,”
“The love and affection that we have received affirms that our grief — that our experience in this country has been correct and positive. The world is receiving us like we have never seen. They have seen the blackness of his character, of his soul.”
Khan moved into the national spotlight after he pulled out a pocket copy of the Constitution during his speech at the Democratic National Convention. He said Trump would have barred his Muslim family from entering the United States.Khan said Sunday Trump’s “policy, his practices, do not reflect that he has any understanding of the basic, fundamental constitutional principles of this country.”“He talks about excluding people, disrespecting judges, the entire judicial system, immigrants, Muslim immigrants. These are divisive rhetoric that are totally against the basic constitutional principles,” he said.
He also said Trump lacks key traits that presidents need.
“Two things are absolutely necessary in any leader or any person who aspires, wishes, to be a leader. That is moral compass and second is empathy,” Khan said.
Khan called on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to withdraw their support for Trump.
“It is a moral obligation — history will not forgive them,” he said. “This election will pass, but history will be written. The lack of moral courage with remain a burden on their souls.”
There are a lot of things in the Constitution but forbidding “divisive rhetoric” isn’t in there. But if arguing with the father of a dead soldier isn’t bad enough, going after the mother is bizarre:
Trump had first suggested Khan’s wife was not allowed to speak in an interview with The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, saying: “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”
Then, he told Stephanopoulos, “If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably — maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me.”
Khizr Khan’s wife, Ghazala Khan, responded to Trump in a Washington Post op-ed Sunday.
“Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?” she wrote.
“Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not true,” Ghazala Khan wrote. “My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not. My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes. Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each other so you can take care of the family.”
Khizr Khan had also said in an interview with The Washington Post that Trump’s attack on his wife was “typical of a person without a soul.”
No, Mr. Khan. Attacking a mother who lost a son in war is typical of a person without a brain.
There was no reason for Trump to respond at all to Mr. Khan, but the candidate’s thin skin apparently won’t let insults lie — even if firing back makes him look like a bully and a lout.
Trump has begun an unwinnable fight where every time he opens his mouth to respond to the latest from Mr. Khan, he diminishes himself.
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