It seems Donald Trump has really stepped in it with his attacks on the Khan family.
One day after Trump suggested that Ghazala Khan didn’t speak about her late son at last week’s Democratic National Convention because her husband Khizr wouldn’t “allow” her to do so, the highly influential Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is calling him out.
“Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression,” said VFW Commander-in-Chief Brian Duffy. “There are certain sacrosanct subjects that no amount of wordsmithing can repair once crossed. Giving one’s life to nation is the greatest sacrifice, followed closely by Gold Star families, who have a right to make their voices heard.”
In addition to the VFW, 17 other Gold Star families also denounced Trump’s attack on the Khan family on Monday.
“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,” the Gold Star families wrote in an open letter to Trump. “When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice.”
Trump’s spat with the Khan family began last Thursday when Khizr Khan denounced Trump at the Democratic National Convention. Khan in particular attacked Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States and pointed out that his son Humayun would not have been allowed into the United States under this proposal.
Ghazala Khan did not speak during the DNC because she said she was too emotional at the time. She subsequently did grant interviews to MSNBC and other outlets, although this didn’t stop Trump from suggesting that her husband wouldn’t allow her to talk publicly.
Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004, when he told men in his unit to take cover while he went to inspect what he believed was a car bomb. Khan took ten steps toward the vehicle before it exploded and killed him.
