Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father-turned-political operative who berated Donald Trump from the podium at the Democratic National Convention last month, is calling on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to renounce the Republican presidential nominee.

Cronkite News interviewed Khan:

“I implore Sen. McCain … I continue to implore all of the good Republicans who either support or are going to vote for their party’s candidate, this will be a historic moment in the Republican Party,” Khan said Tuesday during an interview with Cronkite News. “If you publicly rebuked him, you will look back and you will stand tall in front of the nation and you will say you were not for this, we were for (a) better America,” he said. … Khan said McCain and other GOP leaders need to take their repudiation of Trump and his remarks one step further. “They don’t want to have that burden on their conscience,” Khan said. “That was the time to speak. This is the time to stand for whatever they want to stand.”

Curiously, Khan had not made any of his feeling about Trump known to the media, or in a non-partisan forum, until he and his wife appeared onstage at the Democratic Party’s convention in Philadelphia.

Khan has not said anything about Hillary Clinton’s treatment of the bereaved Benghazi parents, two of whom are suing her for defamation after she told them a YouTube video was to blame for their sons’ deaths, then lied about having done so and said that they had remembered conversations with her incorrectly.

Reports have emerged that Khan is now being recruited to run for office in Virginia, with fundraising efforts already under way.

Democrats have long used McCain to exploit differences among Republicans, beginning with the 2000 election, when McCain was George W. Bush’s main rival. McCain remained a gadfly throughout the Bush administration, with the notable exception of the Iraq “surge.” As such, he was constantly available to the media in their quest for anti-Bush sound bites.

Trump is receiving the same treatment from Democrats and the media. While feuding with McCain, he also recently endorsed the long-serving U.S. Senator from Arizona in the Republican primary for his re-election race.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.