“Their son died for the Constitution and I honor that,” Rubio said. | AP Photo Rubio: Khan family has a ‘First Amendment right to speak out’

Marco Rubio on Monday repudiated Donald Trump’s assertion that a Gold Star father had “no right” to criticize the Republican presidential nominee.

Speaking to reporters in Clearwater, the Florida senator praised the Khan family, calling each of them a hero, but did not explicitly condemn the real estate mogul’s retaliatory remarks.


Rubio said fallen Muslim-American war hero Humayun Khan, who sacrificed his life to protect his troops in Iraq in 2004, “is a hero, for every measure,” according to a transcript provided to the Tampa Bay Times.

“I think his parents are heroes and they have a First Amendment right to speak out on their politics, as all Americans do,” he added, referring to Khizr and Ghazala Khan. “Their son died for the Constitution and I honor that.”

At the Democratic National Convention last Thursday, Khizr Khan, with his wife by his side, questioned whether Trump has ever read the Constitution and asserted that he has “sacrificed nothing, and no one.”

Trump has repeatedly clashed with the Khan family since Khizr Khan delivered his fiery address last week. In a statement released Saturday, Trump said “Humayun Khan was a hero to our country” and shifted the conversation from the Khans to terrorists and immigration. But he didn’t stop there.

“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son,” he began, “Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things.”

Rubio similarly shifted the conversation to terrorism and immigration, telling reporters that the fallen Army captain “lost his life in the hands of radical jihadists.”

“They took their view of their faith and used it to justify killing innocents and attacking them. So that’s why it’s a complex issue,” Rubio said.

He also argued that while some Muslim Americans “are patriotic and love this country” like the Khan family, “there are terrorists trying to get into the United States.”

“We live in a world now where we have to know exactly who’s coming in, why they’re coming, who they are, and what they’re up to,” he continued. “And that becomes harder when they’re coming from countries that don’t even have a functional government. And so, I think you can be for that, as I am, and also honor the sacrifice and service of all Americans who have served us in uniform.”