Jackson Free Press

NEW YORK (AP) — In a defensive crouch, Donald Trump complained Monday about being "viciously attacked" by the father of a decorated Muslim Army captain killed in Iraq, persisting in an emotionally charged feud that has left him increasingly isolated among fellow Republicans.

Trump broke a political and societal taboo over the weekend when he criticized Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the bereaved parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, who was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart after he was killed in Iraq in 2004. Trump stoked outrage by implying Ghazala Khan did not speak while standing alongside her husband at last week's Democratic convention because she is a Muslim woman.

The outcry has been swift and bipartisan. On Monday, Republican Sen. John McCain said in a statement that the fact Trump won his party's nomination doesn't give him "unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."

McCain added pointedly: "I'd like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Khan: thank you for immigrating to America. We're a better country because of you."

Trump tweeted Monday that "Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over TV doing the same." He said the focus should be on "radical Islamic terrorism," not the parents.

Khizr Khan told CNN on Monday that "We want to be out of this controversy. That is not our style. ... We want to maintain our dignity," even as the couple kept up a round of TV appearances. Said his wife: "My religion or my family or my culture never stopped me from saying what I want to say. I have all the rights as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter."

At last week's convention, Khizr Khan criticized Trump for proposing to freeze the entry of foreign Muslims into the U.S. and accused him of making no sacrifices for his country.

Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued statements over the weekend praising the couple's son. Though neither mentioned Trump, the congressional leaders pointedly denounced his proposed restriction on foreign Muslims, a policy he had altered in recent weeks.

The episode risked setting back whatever progress Trump made during his convention at winning over the independent voters who will probably be key in the fall election.

Yet he's repeatedly made inflammatory statements at little apparent political cost — and sometimes to his benefit — going back to the beginning of the campaign when he challenged the heroism of McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and branded Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. Many of his supporters have been drawn to his tendency to say the politically unthinkable. The question is whether this, finally, is a step too far.

For the second time in a week, Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, issued a statement that appeared designed to put some space between the two men. The father of a Marine, Pence said Sunday that he and Trump believe Capt. Khan is a hero and his family "should be cherished by every American."

Last week, Pence said Russia would face "serious consequences" for meddling in U.S. elections at roughly the same time Trump appeared to encourage it, telling reporters he would welcome Russia unearthing emails that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton deleted from the private servers she used while secretary of state.

Pence's statement late Sunday came after an afternoon of debate among his aides as to whether he should find a way to dissociate himself subtly from Trump's comments, according to a person familiar with the internal campaign conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss them publicly.

At last week's Democratic convention, the Pakistan-born Khizr Khan told his son's story, questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said "you have sacrificed nothing." During the speech, Ghazala Khan stood quietly by his side.

Trump responded in an interview with ABC's "This Week," saying: "If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say."

Ghazala Khan wrote in Sunday's Washington Post that she did not speak because talking about her son's death remains difficult. "Every day, whenever I pray, I have to pray for him, and I cry," she wrote.