Donald Trump insulted a Gold Star family who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, denied a years-long incursion by Russia into Ukraine, and voiced support for the Russian annexation of Crimea in a single interview Sunday.
Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim soldier who died in a car bombing in Iraq in 2004, appeared “very emotional” in his DNC speech but looked like a “nice guy.”
He then speculated that the soldier’s mother, standing by Khan’s side, was forbidden to speak.
“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, but plenty of people have written that,” Trump said.
In his DNC speech, Khan said that Trump “consistently smears the character of Muslims,” and told him that he has “sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Trump told Stephanopoulos that he has “made a lot of sacrifices.”
“I’ve work very, very hard,” he said. “I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures.”
In the same interview, Trump, confronted with reports that his campaign worked to scale back the Republican party’s position on U.S. arms assistance for Ukrainians fighting Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine, said Russian president Vladimir Putin was “not going to go into Ukraine.”
Told that Putin was “already there,” the businessman moderated his stance.
“OK, well, he’s there in a certain way, but I’m not there yet,” he said.
Trump criticized President Obama for leaving a “mess” in eastern Europe despite his “strong ties to NATO.” The businessman has called NATO “obsolete” and this month suggested conditional support for alliance members.
He then reiterated his call to “take a look” at Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, formerly Ukraine.
“You know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also,” he said.
