"Trumps small comment." The Khan family came to this country and became naturalized citizens. Khizr Khan is a lawyer, who earned an advanced law degree from Harvard. He knows the Constitution. It was something he had to know and know very well to pass his citizenship examination, something many Americans could not pass. He works with constitutional law. When he hears Trumps continual smears of Muslims, his prejudice, and his racism, he finds Trump embarrassing and insulting. And so he asked the absolutely devastating rhetorical question: "Have you read the Constitution?"
Donald Trump watched the speech, and having had several hours to monitor the news cycle and see how this was playing, he remained unprepared. Unable to come up with any response to Mr. Khan or to what Mr. Khan said, Trump took an unprovoked swipe at Khan's wife.
This man is not running for some minor council position. This man is campaigning to be President of the United States of America.
If you remember, in "Saving Private Ryan," General George Marshall read the Letter to Mrs. Bixby, addressed to a woman in circumstances similar to those of Mrs. Khan:
"Dear Madam,--
"I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."
"Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln"
That letter is an example of a President of the United States being presidential, It acknowledges the terrible grief that any parent suffers when a child dies in a war. It expresses the heartfelt thanks of the nation for the life given. At every military funeral, when the flag is present to the next of kin, it is presented with the statement, "On behalf of the President of the United States and a grateful nation, I wish to present you with this flag in appreciation for your loved one's service." Instead of that kind of respect, Donald Trump challenges the sincerity of the mother's feelings.
If he is running as the candidate of the party of Lincoln, perhaps he should about some of what made Lincoln presidential.