At Pence rally in Carson City, mother of service member booed over Khan question

Lance Iversen / AP

Mike Pence — Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate — quieted a Carson City campaign rally crowd that booed a woman Monday who had asked how he can tolerate what she said was Trump's disrespect of American servicemen.

The woman, who said her son serves in the U.S. Air Force, asked Pence during a town hall at the Carson Nugget about Trump's treatment of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Muslims whose son, a decorated Army veteran, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Pence asked the crowd to quiet down, then said about the questioner: "That's what freedom looks like. That's what freedom sounds like."

He continued: "Capt. Kahn is an American hero. We honor him and his family ... we cherish his family."

Pence added that he's never spent time around someone who is "more devoted" to military and veterans than Trump.

Pence also said Monday that the first item of business for the Trump administration would be to install new leadership at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the Indiana governor's first campaign stop in Nevada, the crowd of about 400 heard him say that Trump, if elected, would repeal Obamacare and send the money back to the states to decide how to best take care of the public's medical and insurance needs.

The crowd, a good part of them seniors, asked him about Medicare and rising health insurance costs.

He said a Trump administration would “keep the promise to Social Security and Medicare.”

Pence said a revived economy under Trump would provide more revenue for these programs.

At one point when Pence criticized Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on her foreign policy, the crowd booed and yelled “Lock her up,” referring to the email controversy.

He told those assembled that despite the Democrats and the media, Trump “is still standing tall.”

An effort by media to talk to Pence after his speech was blocked by a Pence media executive. There was no chance to ask him where he stood on Nevada accepting high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Pence spent 12 years in Congress before being elected governor of Indiana.

He made an appearance later in Reno.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.