If President Barack Obama or top Republicans thought that Donald Trump will change his ways and opt for a semblance of political correctness after the firestorm over his latest “Khan-gate” controversy, the billionaire real-estate mogul has promptly proved them wrong.
letting it be known once again that he is a class apart, Trump lost little time on Tuesday to lock horns with Obama, who made a renewed assertion from the White House podium that the Republican nominee was “unfit” to serve as President, saying the “woefully underprepared” man “keeps on proving it”.
“Well, he’s a terrible President. He’ll probably go down as the worst President in the history of our country, he’s been a total disaster,” Trump said in an interview soon after Obama’s remarks, adding: “You look at what happens in the Middle East, in Syria and his line in the sand. I think it just means he’s concerned I’m going to win.”
“Obama-(Hillary) Clinton have single-handedly destabilised the Middle East, handed Iraq, libya and Syria to ISIS, and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered at Benghazi. Then they put Iran on the path to nuclear weapons. Then they allowed dozens of veterans to die waiting for medical care that never came,” he said in a separate statement, adding: “Our nation has been humiliated abroad and compromised by radical Islam brought onto our shores. We need change now.”
“The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family (the Khans) that had made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, means that he’s woefully unprepared to do this job,” Obama commented.
He went on to say that leading Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and senior Senator John McCain should withdraw their endorsement of Trump instead of confining themselves to denouncing the sort of statements that he comes up with.
Trump himself, undeterred by the all-round criticism of his spat with the Khans, asserted that he had no regrets over the episode that has held the media spotlight for the past four days. Accusing Khizr Khan, father of the slain Pakistani-American Muslim soldier, of launching a “vicious attack” on him from the Democratic convention platform, Trump asserted that he had a “right to defend himself”.
In an interview to Fox News, Trump also defended his own soft disposition towards Russian President Vladimir Putin, remarking: “Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing frankly if we actually got along with Russians and worked out some kind of a deal where we go and knock the hell out of ISIS along with NATO and along with countries that are in the areaIJ”
Trump was unsparing on his own senior party colleagues, notably Speaker Ryan and Senator McCain, who had put out statements critical of his stand vis-à-vis the Khans. He went on to say that he was not quite ready to endorse both Ryan and McCain, who were up against impending primaries for their Congressional seats from Wisconsin and Arizona respectively.
“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet,” Trump said in an interview to The Washington Post and went on to praise Ryan’s primary rival, Paul Nehlen.
As for Vietnam War hero McCain, who had issued a lengthy statement denouncing his comments on the Khans, Trump said: “I’ve never
been there with John McCain because I’ve always felt that he should have done a
much better job for the vets. He has not done a good job for the vets.”