Trump to Father of Fallen Soldier: 'I've Made a Lot of Sacrifices'
In his first response to a searing charge at the Democratic National Convention from Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, that he "sacrificed nothing" for his country,
Donald Trump claimed that he sacrificed by employing "thousands and thousands of people." Also, he suggested that Khan's wife, Ghazala Khan, didn't speak at the convention because she was forbidden to as a Muslim and questioned whether Khan's words were his own.
"Who wrote that? Did Hillary's scriptwriters write it?" Trump said in an interview with ABC News'
George Stephanopoulos. "I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard."
On the last night of the
Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Gold Star father Khizr Khan, with his wife by his side, recounted to the crowd how their son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in 2004 by a car bomb in
Iraq.
Khizr Khan chastised Trump for seeking to bar foreign Muslims from entering the country, saying their son would not have been able to serve under a Trump presidency.
"Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America," Khizr Khan said, addressing Trump. "You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one."
Trump appeared to try to brush the speech aside, saying that Khizr Khan "was, you know, very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me."
Trump also said, "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."
This appears to be Trump tipping his hat to some far-right-wing and nationalist Twitter users who have suggested that Ghazala Khan was silent during her husband's speech because they are Muslim and he prohibits her from speaking.