Gold Star father Khizr Khan, a frequent foil of President Trump, endorsed Joe Biden as the former vice president fights for the right to challenge the Republican incumbent next year.
“I’m supporting Joe Biden for President because of the America he stands for and the one he will fight for — the country that my son, Humayun Khan, believed in and fought for so bravely,” Khan wrote in a statement released by the Biden campaign Monday.
Trump, 73, exchanged heated words with Khan, 69, and his wife Ghazala Khan, 68, last cycle after their emotional address at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The Pakistani immigrants lost their son, Humayun Khan, then a 27-year-old U.S. Army captain, when a car bomb went off outside his Iraqi base in 2004. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
At the 2016 Democratic confab in Philadelphia, Khizr Khan criticized Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, pulling out a pocketbook copy of the Constitution and asking whether the then-reality TV star and real estate mogul had even read the document.
On Monday, Khan compared Trump and Biden’s commitment to the republic, saying Biden, 76, has “always” put the United States before himself.
“President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has consistently chosen self over country, seeking the aid of totalitarian governments to sway elections and undermine our rule of law to serve his self-interest,” he wrote.
Khan’s endorsement is not a total surprise. Earlier this month, he and his wife attended a top-dollar fundraiser for Biden hosted by former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
