The head of Trump’s campaign tried to tamp down growing uproar over Donald Trump’s criticism of a Muslim couple that appeared at the Democratic Convention.
Paul Manafort said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the media were to blame for the attention to Trump’s criticism of Khan’s speech, in which he asked if Trump had read the Constitution.
His comments come as the campaign has undertaken extensive damage control after Trump criticized Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala, whose son Humayun was an army captain who died in Iraq in 2004. Humayun posthumously received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
“The issue is how to protect the homeland,” Manafort said.
Trump ignited fierce criticism after he wondered why Ghazala did not speak during the speech, speculating that she was silenced by the Clinton campaign.
Khizr Khan later said on “Meet the Press” that the stewardship of this country needs to be in the hands of someone who “has a moral compass,” adding, “The way he showed disrespect towards the gold star mother of this country, that says it all,” referring to his wife Ghazala.
Khizr also responded to Trump’s recent tweet saying that his son should be “honored.”
“I appreciate his statement calling my son a hero. It sounds so disingenuous because of his policies, because of his rhetoric of hatred, of division, of dividing us. That is why I implore him to read the Constitution,” Khan said.
He later appealed to Republican congressional leaders that they should repudiate Trump and not vote for him, naming specifically House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“It seems my opinions are falling on deaf ears,” Khan said.
He said he has spoken to some Republican elected leaders but declined to specify whom.
