Trump and Clinton Surrogates Get in Volatile Argument Over GOP Candidate’s Feud With Khans

A CNN panel discussion on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of the late Capt. Humayun Khan, was volatile early Monday morning.

Former Trump campaign manager and current CNN contributor Corey Lewandowski defended his candidate of choice. “When someone attacks you publicly in front of a stage of millions of people, you have the ability to respond,” he claimed. “Now, this is a very sensitive issue.” “She didn’t say a word!” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign surrogate Christine Quinn interjected. “She didn’t say a word. It is outrageously un-American.”

When Quinn was condemning Trump’s response, Lewandowski interrupted and things got heated. “You got to relax a little bit,” Lewandowski told Quinn. “I do not have to relax,” said a visibly angry Quinn. “Excuse me,” Lewandowski started, but when Quinn touched his arm, he immediately started to tell her, “Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.” “Oh calm down,” Quinn shot back. “Relax,” insisted Lewandowski. “I’m not going to relax,” shot back Quinn. “Because we have a man running for president of the United States who made a Gold Star mother have to go on TV and cry in front of America.”

Lewandowski complained that Trump never asked Mrs. Khan to go on TV. CNN anchor John Berman suggested she felt she had no choice. “While [Trump] said Capt. Khan was a hero, what he did there was he questioned why this woman was being silent,” Berman pointed out. “But remember how this began,” Lewandowski replied. “Mr. Khan got up and said, Donald Trump is a bad person who’s never read the Constitution, et cetera, et cetera. That’s how this began.”

It’s hard to see how a protracted argument between Trump and the Khans benefits the candidate, something anchor Poppy Harlow brought up. “What does this get Donald Trump, this fight?” Harlow asked. “He didn’t start the fight,” Lewandowski complained. “This is the typical media. When Donald Trump responds to somebody, they say he’s attacking. He’s not. He’s counterpunching.”

Lewandowski repeatedly tried to shift the discussion into how a Trump presidency would have prevented an Iraq War in the first place. This despite Trump, like Clinton, initially supporting the war. Yet the conversation inevitably would return to Trump’s inability to let go of this dispute with the Khans. “Presidents of both parties rarely ever, maybe never, attack the families because being a leader, being a commander in chief sometimes means, often means rising above,” said Quinn.

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