Gold Star father Khizr Khan endorses Harris for president

Khizr Khan, the father of a slain Muslim Army captain who gained national attention by pointedly criticizing Donald Trump during the Democratic National Convention in 2016, announced in an exclusive interview with NBC News that he is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and plans to act as a campaign surrogate for her. 

In 2016, Khan denounced Trump’s treatment of Muslims and other minorities while holding a pocket-size U.S. Constitution and challenging Trump to read it. In his interview with NBC News on Saturday, Khan said that Trump has “gotten worse” and that he fears Trump will become a dictator and end democracy as Americans know it. 

“Trump is undeserving of support [from] America because he is [a] divider. He creates hatred,” Khan said. “On the other hand, Kamala Harris, our vice president, is a person who unites the country, who is for equal dignity, who is for equal opportunity for entire America. That is why I stand with Vice President Harris.” 

Khan, whose son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed by a car bomb while he was serving in Iraq in 2004, also said he believes Trump is a threat to the future of American freedoms. 

“Our democracy, our rule of law, is at stake,” Khan said. “Trump has already announced his authoritarian playbook, publicly announced that this may be the last election of this country.”

The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Harris campaign is bracing for an onslaught of Republican attacks related to the Biden-Harris administration’s execution of the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan — including a bombing at the so-called Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members. 

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On Monday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to release a Republican-led report condemning the Biden-Harris team’s handling of the withdrawal. On Tuesday, the day of the presidential debate between Harris and Trump, Republican leaders plan to posthumously honor the Abbey Gate victims by giving the Congressional Gold Medal to their families. 

The Harris campaign expects some Gold Star families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan during the withdrawal to continue to publicly criticize Harris and Biden and praise Trump, which some have done for the last few weeks.

Asked about the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Gold Star families' attacks on Harris, Khan said he respected the families but believed Trump was using their grief for his political benefit. He added that Trump’s behavior toward veterans and their families had been “nothing but disrespectful.”

“Our Gold Star families are the most honorable and respected families in the United States,” Khan said. “We have the highest regard for their sacrifice and for their loved ones. To them, I say this: Please reconsider your stand. Donald Trump has a habit and a nature of exploit. He uses every opportunity. He uses every opportunity that he gets to use for his benefit, as somebody had said that Trump is nothing but ego and appetite.”

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Khan also said he isn’t an expert on the Afghanistan war and doesn’t want to “second guess” the actions of the Biden-Harris administration. 

“Second-guessing the decisions of our leadership, our military leadership, is not a good idea,” Khan said. “It is not in national interest. Guess who is going to exploit this difference and Republicans’ exploitation of this issue? Our adversaries — and it does not benefit our country. It does not benefit our national security.”

Khan also weighed in on the recent dust-up after Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery with some Gold Star families. He used photos of the visit for his campaign, and Trump campaign aides reportedly got into a physical altercation with cemetery staff members.

Khan criticized the photo of Trump posing at the cemetery with his thumbs up. 

“Who does that? Who does thumbs up standing at a dignified place where our heroes are buried? … I go there quite often. I stand there in awe of the sacrifice, with my head bowed to pay respect to all that are interred in Arlington Cemetery,” he said. 

Harris has also condemned Trump and his campaign for their actions at Arlington National Cemetery in a post on X. She accused Trump of “disrespect[ing] sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

Trump defended his actions in a recent interview with NBC News, saying a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.” He said he didn’t request to take photos and videos.

The Trump campaign has also repeatedly blasted Harris and blamed her for the service members’ deaths during the withdrawal.

Several of the families have emphasized that they invited Trump to the cemetery, and a number of them have blamed Biden and Harris for their loved ones’ deaths.