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Khizr Khan: Trump has a 'black soul'
| CNN | - |
Washington
(CNN) Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim US soldier slain in Iraq in
2004, said Sunday that Donald Trump has a "black soul," indicating he
lacks empathy and compassion.
Khizr Khan: Trump has a 'black soul'
Story highlights
- Khizr Khan's son was a Muslim US soldier who died in Iraq
- He has spoken out against Donald Trump
Washington (CNN)Khizr
Khan, the father of a Muslim US soldier slain in Iraq in 2004, said
Sunday that Donald Trump has a "black soul," indicating he lacks empathy
and compassion.
Khan told CNN's Jim Acosta on "State of the Union" that he hopes Trump's family will "teach him some empathy."
"He
is a black soul, and this is totally unfit for the leadership of this
country," Khan said. "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."
Khan calls on GOP leaders to stop Donald Trump 02:22
"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."
He
said those GOP leaders have a "moral, ethical obligation to not worry
about the votes but repudiate him; withdraw the support. If they do not,
I will continue to speak."
Trump to Khizr Khan: 'I've made a lot of sacrifices' 02:04
Khan
pushed back on Trump's suggestion that his wife, who was also on stage
at the DNC, was not allowed to speak. He said she has high blood
pressure and didn't want to speak for fear she wouldn't be able to hold
herself together discussing her Gold Star son on stage.
"For
this candidate for presidency to not be aware of the respect of a Gold
Star mother standing there, and he had to take that shot at her, this is
height of ignorance," Khan said. "This is why I showed him (the)
Constitution. Had he read that, he would know the status a Gold Star
mother holds in this nation."
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."
Trump supporter reacts to father of soldier at DNC 01:46
"Emotionally
and physically -- she just couldn't even stand there, and when we left,
as soon as we got off camera, she just broke down," Khan told the Post.
"And the people inside, the staff, were holding her, consoling her. She
was just totally emotionally spent. Only those parents that have lost
their son or daughter could imagine the pain that such a memory causes."
Trump,
in a statement released Saturday by his campaign, called Capt. Khan "a
hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate
sacrifice to keep our country safe."
But
after Khan's Sunday CNN interview, Trump tweeted: "I was viciously
attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to
respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!"
Earlier
Sunday, he also tweeted: "Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a
hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our
"leaders" to eradicate it!"
Trump
also pushed back on Khan's on-stage suggestion that he has "sacrificed
nothing and no one" in an interview with with ABC News' George
Stephanopoulos aired Sunday on "This Week."
"I
think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard," Trump
said. "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."
Hillary Clinton
also weighed in on Trump's Khan comments on Sunday in remarks to
parishioners at the Imani Temple Ministries in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Mr.
Khan paid the ultimate sacrifice in his family, didn't he? And what has
he heard from Donald Trump? Nothing but insults, degrading comments
about Muslims, a total misunderstanding of what made our country great
religions freedom, religious liberty," she said.
Clinton
added: "I don't begrudge anyone of any other faith or of no faith at
all. But I do tremble before those who would scapegoat other Americans,
who would insult people because of their religion, their ethnicity,
their disability, that is just not how I was raised, that is not how I
was taught in my church."
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