Donald Trump has given his first response to Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American soldier who died to protect his unit. Khan addressed the Democratic national convention this week, rebuking Trump as unpatriotic and selfish as he did so.

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In an interview with the New York Times opinion writer Maureen Dowd, Trump’s only comment was: “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

The Republican nominee also gave an interview with ABC, in which he suggested that Hillary Clinton’s speechwriters scripted Khan’s speech, which Khan has said he wrote with his wife, Ghazala Khan.

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” Trump said. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”

In a statement released later on Saturday, Trump then praised Mr Khan’s son, who was killed serving in Iraq.

“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe,” the statement said.

On Saturday, Clinton said in a statement: “This is a time for all Americans to stand with the Khans, and with all the families whose children have died in service to our country.”



Making no mention of Trump, the former secretary of state said she was moved by the way Ghazala Khan spoke about her son, who Clinton said represents “the best of America”.

Clinton is on a three-day bus tour through Pennsylvania and Ohio with her running mate, Tim Kaine. During a stop at a wire product manufacturer in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, she told a roomful of union workers that she was sorry for the current state of political discourse in America.



“We’re living in a time of really hot politics. People say all kinds of things – hateful things, insulting things,” Clinton said. “I’m sorry about that.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump has suggested Clinton speechwriters wrote Khan’s speech. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Later in her remarks, Clinton defended retired four-star Gen John Allen, who Trump said “failed” in the fight against Isis.



“Gen Allen is a distinguished marine, a hero and a patriot,” she told the crowd. “Donald Trump called him a failed general. Why? Because he does not believe Donald Trump should be commander-in-chief. Well, I’d say that proves it. Our commander-in-chief shouldn’t insult and deride our generals, retired or otherwise.”

On Thursday, Khan stunned a national audience with a speech directly confronting Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the US. At the climax of the speech, Khan, a Harvard-educated lawyer, pulled a small constitution from his jacket pocket and held it above his head.

“Have you even read the United States constitution?” he asked of Trump.



“Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America – you will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”



Khan also noted that Trump’s proposals, which include a return to torture and the killing of families whose relatives are suspected of terrorism, would violate basic principles of the constitution. The immigration ban would have prevented his family from settling in the US, he said, and his son from joining the army.

That was “only half” of the speech, Khan said on Friday night on MSNBC’s The Last Word. “The other half is addressed to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell –what a patriot, decent human being, what a leader he is – and then Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House.

“But isn’t this the time to repudiate Trump? What he has said, what he has threatened to do – this is moral imperative for both leaders to say to him: ‘Enough.’ You are about to sink the ship of the patriot Republicans.”

On Saturday, a spokeswoman for Ryan’s office said: “The speaker has made clear many times that he rejects this idea, and himself has talked about how Muslim Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country.”

But neither McConnell and Ryan, despite criticism of Trump’s comments, have rescinded their endorsements of him, resulting in an awkward and often tense alliance. Ryan has called some of his remarks “textbook racism” and McConnell has said he disagrees with some of the candidate’s statements.

Khan praised the Republican party even as he warned of the consequences of shortsighted politics. “Republicans are as patriotic as Democrats are,” he said. “They are half of the goodness of this beautiful country. Half of this political process the rest of the world watches enviously, learns from it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hillary Clinton has apologised for the ‘hateful’ and ‘insulting’ political discourse in the US. Photograph: Aaron P Bernstein/Reuters

Trump represented a threat to that democracy, Khan said. “If your candidate wins, and he governs the way he has campaigned, my country, this country, will have constitutional crises that [have] never before [happened] in the history of the country.”

“There comes a time in the history of a nation when an ethical, moral stand has to be taken, regardless of the political response,” he concluded. “The only reason they’re not repudiating his behavior, his threat to our democracy, our decency, our foundation is just because of political consequences.”

Ghazala Khan stood at her husband’s side at the convention, and during the interview on Friday explained that she could hardly bear the emotions of grief that she felt during the tribute for her late son, Humayun, who was posthumously awarded a bronze star and purple heart for his heroism in Iraq, where he died in 2004.

She said she felt “very nervous, because I cannot see my son’s picture – I cannot even come in the room where his pictures are”.

“So when I saw the picture on my back,” she said, referring to the large photograph of her son projected over the stage, “I couldn’t take it, and I controlled myself at that time. So it is very hard.”

Her husband said he could not have carried out the speech without his wife’s help, as “coach” and partner.

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“I am much weaker than she is in such matters,” he said. “Forty years of marriage [have] brought us in a position where we are a strength for one another, so her being there was the strength so that I could hold my composure.”

Nonetheless, Khan apologized for his emotions during the interview. “We are private, ordinary American citizens,” he said. “My conscience compels me under these very difficult circumstances. I am a very composed person. I don’t become that emotional in public discourse. But there is so much at stake.”

Capt Humayun Khan was killed by a car bomber in Iraq on 8 June 2004, four months after arriving there and after four years of service in the US army. His mother told MSNBC that, before her son left for war, she said: “’Don’t become [a] hero for me. Just be my son. Come back as a son.’ He came back as a hero.”

Trump insisted to ABC: “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices.” He cited his “millions of dollars” in donations for veterans, although the businessman was found to have donated only after the Washington Post found he gave far less than he boasted he had over several months.