Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a bipartisan stir when he insulted the wife of slain soldier Humayun Khan, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders feeling compelled to make a statement condemning Trump, and referencing the Holocaust.
“I’m Jewish. My father’s family died in concentration camps. I will do everything I can to rid this country of the ugly stain of racism.” Sanders wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
“Lots of hate is being generated against Muslims in America. If we stand for anything we have to stand together and end all forms of racism,” he added.
Sanders joined many in his condemnation of Trump for his comments about Ghazala Khan, the mother of Army captain Humayun Kahn, who died serving in Iraq in 2004.
After Khan’s father Khizr Khan delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention criticizing Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from the US, Trump suggested his wife Ghazala was unable to speak due to her Muslim faith.
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me, but plenty of people have written that.”
“She was extremely quiet and looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the father, Trump said, “I’d say, we have a lot of issues with radical Islamic terrorism, that’s what I’d say.”
Ghazala responded to Trump’s insinuations, telling ABC she chose not to speak because she knew she would be overcome by emotion.
"My faith, Islam, has given us strength, all the women and men are equal in God's eyes," she said. "We are equal, we are the part of our husbands, they are the part of us.”
Bill Clinton, the Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, and others voiced their distaste for Trump’s statement.
"I cannot conceive how you can say that about a Gold Star mother." Bill Clinton said.
Khizr Kahn also responded to Trump’s comments saying: “He has no decency. He is void of decency. He has a dark heart.”