Gold Star father Khizr Khan endorses Harris for president

Khizr Khan, the daddy of a slain Muslim Military captain who gained nationwide consideration by pointedly criticizing former President Donald Trump throughout the Democratic Nationwide Conference in 2016, introduced in an unique interview with NBC Information that he’s endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign and plans to behave as a marketing campaign surrogate for her. 

In 2016, Khan denounced Trump’s remedy of Muslims and different minorities whereas holding a pocket-sized U.S. Structure and difficult Trump to learn the doc. In his interview with NBC Information on Saturday, Khan mentioned Trump has “gotten worse” and that he fears the previous president will change into a dictator and finish democracy as People understand it. 

“Trump is undeserving of help [from] America as a result of he’s [a] divider. He creates hatred,” Khan mentioned. “Then again, Kamala Harris, our vice chairman, is an individual who unites the nation, who’s for equal dignity, who’s for equal alternative for total America. That’s the reason I stand with Vice President Harris.” 

Khan, whose son, Military Captain Humayun Khan, was killed by a automobile bomb whereas serving in Iraq in 2004, additionally mentioned he believes that Trump is a menace to the way forward for American freedoms. 

“Our democracy, our rule of legislation, is at stake,” Khan mentioned. “Trump has already introduced his authoritarian playbook, publicly introduced that this can be the final election of this nation.”

NBC Information has reached out to the Trump marketing campaign for remark.

Khan’s announcement comes because the Harris marketing campaign is bracing for an onslaught of Republican assaults associated to the Biden-Harris administration’s execution of the 2021 U.S. army withdrawal from Afghanistan — together with a bombing on the so-called Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport, which left 13 U.S. service members useless. 

On Monday, the Home Overseas Affairs Committee is predicted to launch a Republican-led report condemning the Biden-Harris crew’s dealing with of the withdrawal. On Tuesday, the identical day because the presidential debate between Harris and Trump, Republican leaders plan to posthumously honor the Abbey Gate victims by giving the Congressional Gold Medal to their households. 

A Harris marketing campaign aide additionally advised NBC Information the marketing campaign expects some Gold Star households who misplaced family members in Afghanistan throughout the withdrawal to proceed to publicly criticize Harris and Biden and reward Trump, which some have finished for the previous few weeks.

When requested in regards to the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Gold Star households attacking Harris, Khan mentioned he revered the households however believed Trump was utilizing their grief for his political profit. He added that Trump’s conduct towards veterans and their households had been “nothing however disrespectful.”

“Our Gold Star households are essentially the most honorable and revered households in america,” Khan mentioned. “Now we have the best regard for his or her sacrifice and for his or her family members. To them, I say this: Please rethink your stand. Donald Trump has a behavior and a nature of exploit. He makes use of each alternative. He makes use of each alternative that he will get to make use of for his profit, as any individual had mentioned that Trump is nothing however ego and urge for food.”

Khan additionally mentioned he wasn’t an skilled on the Afghanistan struggle and didn’t need to “second guess” the actions of the Biden-Harris administration. 

“Second-guessing the selections of our management, our army management, just isn’t a good suggestion,” Khan mentioned. “It isn’t in nationwide curiosity. Guess who’s going to take advantage of this distinction and Republicans’ exploitation of this challenge? Our adversaries — and it doesn’t profit our nation. It doesn’t profit our nationwide safety.”

Khan additionally weighed in on the current dust-up after Trump visited Arlington Nationwide Cemetery with some Gold Star households. He used pictures of the go to for his marketing campaign, and Trump marketing campaign aides reportedly got into a physical altercation with cemetery employees.

Khan criticized the photograph of Trump posing on the cemetery along with his thumbs up. 

“Who does that? Who does thumbs up standing at a dignified place the place our heroes are buried? … I’m going there very often. I stand there in awe of the sacrifice, with my head bowed to pay respect to all which can be interred in Arlington Cemetery,” he mentioned. 

Vice President Kamala Harris has also condemned Trump and his marketing campaign for his or her actions at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery in a put up on X. She accused Trump of “disrespect[ing] sacred floor, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

Throughout a recent interview with NBC News, Trump defended his actions, saying a household “requested me whether or not or not I might stand for an image on the grave of their cherished one who shouldn’t have died.” He mentioned he didn’t request to take pictures and movies.

The Trump marketing campaign has additionally repeatedly blasted Harris and blamed the vice chairman for the service members’ deaths throughout the withdrawal.

A number of of the households have emphasised that they invited Trump to the cemetery, and various them have blamed Biden and Harris for his or her family members’ deaths.