Khizr Khan, delivers remarks as he is joined by his wife Ghazala Khan at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images De Blasio: Trump won't recover from Khan remarks

Mayor Bill de Blasio thinks Donald Trump made a fatal error when he criticized Ghazala Khan, whose son died during the Iraq war and who stood by her husband’s side last week as he delivered a stinging rebuke of Trump’s immigration policies at the Democratic National Convention.

“I’ll tell you, this is something Donald Trump will not come back from,” said de Blasio during an unrelated press conference on Monday. “It’s just too much. There are still some unifying realities in American life. We have tremendous respect for our military. And we have ultimate respect for families who have lost their children serving their country."


"So I think as we saw it, it felt moving," the mayor continued, speaking of Khan's remarks. "We didn’t know it would be decisive. But I think it’s going to be decisive."

During the convention, Ghazala’s husband, Khizr criticized Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration and, brandishing a copy of the U.S. Constitution, suggested Trump had never read it.

Trump reacted soon after by criticizing Ghazala Khan.

“She was extremely quiet and looked like she had nothing to say,” he told ABC’s This Week. “A lot of people have said that.”

In a separate interview with the Times’ Maureen Dowd, he said, “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

The ensuing backlash has united Republicans like Sen. John McCain with Democrats like de Blasio, and given the Clinton campaign a useful talking point in their contention that Trump is unfit for office.

Trump's words also, on Monday, provided de Blasio a moment of respite during an onslaught of questions surrounding his involvement in deals involving the sales of a Brooklyn hospital and a Manhattan nursing home, both of which are now under investigation.

“Oh, you’re asking the good question,” de Blasio told the reporter who asked about the Khan family and Trump.

De Blasio said Khan brandishing the U.S. Constitution in a confrontation with Trump was akin to the moment in 1954 when U.S. Army attorney Joseph Welch asked Sen. Joseph McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency?"

McCarthy's popularity cratered in the aftermath.

Like Welch’s comments, the Khan confrontation was a moment when “the dam breaks and a truth comes through,” said de Blasio.