Clinton accuses Trump of ‘degrading comments about Muslims’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at Imani Temple Ministries in Cleveland, today. Clinton and running mate Sen. Tim Kaine are on a three day bus tour through the rust belt.
ASHLAND, Ohio » Hillary Clinton said today that Donald Trump repaid the “ultimate sacrifice” of a U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq with insults and degrading comments about Muslims, as the soldier’s bereaved father pressured Republican Party leaders to distance themselves from the GOP presidential nominee.
Clinton’s comments came after Trump refused to back down from his criticism of the Gold Star parents’ remarks.
“Am I not allowed to respond?” Trump had tweeted. “Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!”
It was the latest bitter rhetorical volley between the defiant Republican candidate, Clinton and the family of a fallen soldier since the two parties concluded their major conventions last week and the nation looked ahead to a close election this November.
Trump’s stand has once again left Republican leaders facing demands to denounce their party nominee and overshadowed Clinton’s campaign message with controversy.
“He is a black soul,” said Khizr Khan, whose son Humayun received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart after he was killed in Iraq in 2004. “And this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he said, “It is majority leader’s and speaker’s moral, ethical obligation to not worry about the votes, but repudiate him, withdraw the support.”
Likewise, Clinton told Republicans on Sunday: “This is a time to pick country over party.”
In statements released Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned any criticism of Muslim Americans who serve their country and rejected the idea of a Muslim travel ban — an idea proposed by Trump earlier in the campaign. But neither statement mentioned Trump by name or repudiated him.
McConnell praised Capt. Khan as an “American hero,” while Ryan noted that many Muslim Americans have served “valiantly” in the U.S. military.
“Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice — and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan — should always be honored. Period,” Ryan said.
Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, issued a blistering statement of his own, saying anything short of revoking their endorsements of Trump was “cowardice” on the part of McConnell and Ryan.
“This shouldn’t be hard,” Reid said. “Donald Trump is a sexist and racist man who insults Gold Star parents, stokes fear of Muslims and sows hatred of Latinos. He should not be president and Republican leaders have a moral responsibility to say so?.”
On a post-convention bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, Clinton said Trump has a “total misunderstanding” of American values and has inflamed divisions in American society.
“I don’t know where the boundaries are. I don’t know where the bottom is,” she told reporters during a campaign stop at a cheese barn in Ohio.
“I do tremble before those who would scapegoat other Americans,” she told parishioners in a Cleveland church on Sunday morning. “That’s just not how I was raised.”
At last week’s Democratic National Convention, Pakistan-born Khan told his son’s story and questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said “you have sacrificed nothing.”
During the speech, Khan’s wife, Ghazala, stood quietly by his side.
“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,” Trump said, in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”
Ghazala Khan responded Sunday in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, saying talking about her son’s death 12 years ago is still hard for her. When her husband asked if she wanted to speak at the convention, she said she could not.
“When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant,” she wrote.
At one point, Trump had disputed Khan’s criticism that the billionaire businessman has “sacrificed nothing and no one” for his country.
“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures,” Trump said.
Trump, who had no campaign events scheduled this weekend, released a statement late Saturday night calling Humayun Khan “a hero” but disputing his father’s characterization.
“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things,” said Trump.
Trump’s rebuke was unusual in the world of politics where officials only speak well of families whose loved ones die in service to their country. When Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, staged prolonged protests on the war, then-President George W. Bush responded by saying that the nation grieves every death.
When asked about the mother of a State Department official killed in Benghazi, Libya, who blamed Hillary Clinton for her son’s death, Clinton told “Fox News Sunday” that her “heart goes out” to the families and that she didn’t “hold any ill feeling for someone” who has lost a child and recalls events differently.
Across the country, veterans and their families closely watched the political back-and-forth.
“It was inappropriate on both sides,” said Mark Farner of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, as he stood a few feet from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. “For one to use it as it as the Democrats intended it to be used, and I don’t think Trump handled it the way he should have on his end.”
Farner had just made a rubbing of the name of his cousin, Calvin Wilson, who was killed in action in February 1967.
Romell Short of Washington, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, said he has no problem with veterans’ families being politically active and speaking about their experiences.
“America should know the suffering and the cost of war and part of that is the sacrifice of American troops and the sacrifice of American families,” Short said.
But he cautioned that the views of families should be read separately from their family member who served.
33 responses to “Clinton accuses Trump of ‘degrading comments about Muslims’”
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Here you go HiLIARy. Comment on this…Here is the latest on Clinton Cash. Will it never end…http://nypost.com/2016/07/31/report-raises-questions-about-clinton-cash-from-russians-during-reset/
Now, let’s be honest Mr. Khan, those of us with knowledge could just as easily bring attention to SGT Hasan Karim Akbar and Major Nidal Hasan, both Muslims serving in the U.S. Army. Just as you celebrated your Muslim son’s sacrifice, there are others who could give testimony to their loss due to those Muslim soldiers — and I use lower case reference to them (soldiers) because they dishonored the oath and were traitors to our Code of Honor. Your son was not, but that had nothing to do with him being a Muslim: he was an American Soldier
“Those of us with knowledge?” Like you are suggesting that you have knowledge? Please.
Google Allen West as SA doesn’t appear to hear anything from him. A great American Hero.
Maybe because Mr. West was forced out of the Army after being prosecuted for a serious crime under the UCMJ. He accepted non-judicial punishment in exchange for a forced retirement following an Article 32 hearing. In case you’re curious (not that you ever evidenced any intellectual curiosity here) I was in the US Army JAG Corps.
Yes, Mr. Allen is a great role model!
“I love the poorly educated!” Go Trump!
I meant, of course, Mr. West. Not Mr. Allen.
Klastri, been noticing you been messing up lately. I think ikefromeli is much, much smarter than you, jag or no jag.
Ike didn’t feed the parrot this morning.
lespark – ike may be much smarter than me. But without any question whatever, both of are way, WAY smarter than you.
Klastri, maybe you cant read but yes I have knowledge from the newspaper how many innocent people they murdered.
You sure have shown how much you know here. Exactly.
Klastri, In an interview with Chris Wallace, Hillary was asked about the mother of Sean Smith, Patricia.
She said she understands her grief. She said Mrs. Smith may not have remembered clearly.
Press is biased and not asking the right questions. She gave a twisted and contorted response. Incredible. 1 min 10 sec. Vs. 55 minutes of press coverage in 2 hours.
Does crooked Hilliary ever get tired of lying?
By the way, if you are looking for a job Crooked Hilliary is hiring. $15/hour. No experience necessary.
E.J. Dionne: “Republican politicians face a choice. They can accept Hillary Clinton’s invitation to abandon Donald Trump and prevent a redefinition of their party as a haven for bigotry. Or they can prop Trump up, try to maximize his vote — and thereby tarnish themselves for a generation.
If there were any doubts about Trump’s disqualifying lack of simple decency and empathy, he resolved them on ABC’s “This Week” over the weekend with a characteristically cruel and self-centered attack on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, an American Muslim couple whose son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in the line of duty in Iraq.”
Trump is a sociopath. The fact that anyone voted for him is really amazing.
,,,,and Clinton isn’t? Lighten up on the Kool-Aid
No, she isn’t. Maybe you don’t know what sociopath means.
Hey klassy check out all these lies… Check out the Liar in Chief on Fox in case you missed it…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLvgO1V0k7k
In “Partners in Crime,” two-time No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Jerome Corsi presents the detailed research and expert testimony proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Clinton Foundation is “a vast, criminal conspiracy,” also described in these pages as “a slush fund for grifters.”
Corsi exposes how the Clintons amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in personal net worth, while building a $2 billion empire in the Clinton Foundation. The victims are countless thousands of honest people who contributed their hard-earned money to what they thought were philanthropic causes. The sordid tale involves suspicion of Enron-like fraudulent accounting practices by none less than PricewaterhouseCoopers, a “Big Four” firm, as well as the several “shell corporations” and “pass-through” bank accounts Bill Clinton has established in secret to hide what amount to kickbacks from Clinton Foundation donors and sponsors.
In “Partners in Crime,” Corsi provides readers the names and addresses of state attorney generals throughout the country, explaining that any one state in the Union can get a temporary restraining order from a state judge to place the Clinton Foundation in receivership and launch law enforcement examinations of Clinton Family philanthropic fraud accomplished on a global scale.
It is not enough, Corsi concludes, to appeal to Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the 2016 presidential race in disgrace. A national campaign to “Shut Down the Clinton Foundation” must be launched, Corsi insists, to prevent Barack Obama and other heads of state worldwide from following the Clinton Family crime formula to create their own “charitable foundations” to enrich themselves upon leaving office.
Corsi also said he had proof that Mr. Obama was not born in Hawai’i. That story of Mr. Corsi fell apart of course, as most of his stories do.
A proven liar.
So now you have Allen West and Jerome Corsi as your reference points. Maybe try again? You’re bound to hit a good one sooner or later.
Okay… Check out the Liar in Chief on Fox in case you missed it…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLvgO1V0k7k
sarge22 – You post links to words written by others.
Is it possible for you to be any more lazy?
Whatever works. How did you like the video?
Trump knows what a real sacrifice is, like the time he had to choose between playing golf and his spray tan appointment.
Did you see Melania’s photo shoot? She will be a Great First Lady. Bill must be drooling. Crooked Hillary will stoop at nothing. What kind of person, what kind of Party would condone this kind of behavior.
Have they no shame? I guess not.
How can we fight ISIS and fight Russia. Hillary is not the answer.
Yes. For his third wife, Mr. Trump certainly did choose a beautiful woman.
I’m curious what wife numbers four and five will look like.
You’re just jealous. Looking for a job? Hillary is hiring. Arby’s $15.00/hour.
I wish the election was yesterday so I could tell you I told you so.
She just doesn’t quit does she. Spewing hatred against the American way of life. I don’t know how she’s going to run the Country when Obama’s own advisors are telling him we have a big problem with Islamists.
Never mind unpresidential. This lady has diarrhea of the mouth.
Hillary welcomes Syrian refugees. Americans must move aside for our Muslim friends. Americans must sacrifice. 8,000 Syrian Refugees given temporary amnesty by DHS. No room for Mexicans.
Crooked Hilliary’s economic plan is spend more, tax more, increase debt. Obama’s plan didn’t work. She is the change maker. 70% say they don’t trust her and we were/are headed in the wrong direction.
No ill feelings for family members who don’t recall what was said. HRC
Slow down buddy. Time for a Rolling Rock…http://www.rollingrock.com/