--- title: Donald Trump: Khizr Khan Feels Sorry for Republicans description: Khizr Khan said he feels sorry for Republicans who have been forced to walk the tightrope of condemning Donald Trump's attacks on his family canonical: https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-02T22:41:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:47.078Z article:section: Politics og:title: Khizr Khan: I Feel Sorry for Republicans Who Support Donald Trump og:description: “It is so sad" og:url: https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt940f3ee7769b3b81/6988a0df0b72e33dfd6ea838/donald-trump-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Holds Rally In Ashburn, Virginia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Khizr Khan: I Feel Sorry for Republicans Who Support Donald Trump twitter:description: “It is so sad" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt940f3ee7769b3b81/6988a0df0b72e33dfd6ea838/donald-trump-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Khizr Khan: I Feel Sorry for Republicans Who Support Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Aug 2, 2016 10:41 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign event at Briar Woods High School, on Aug. 2, 2016 in Ashburn, Va. Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign event at Briar Woods High School, on Aug. 2, 2016 in Ashburn, Va.Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Aug 2, 2016 10:41 PM UTC [Khizr Khan](http://time.com/4433169/khizr-khan-gold-star-families-history/), the father of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004, said in a new interview that he feels sorry for Republican leaders who have been forced to walk the tightrope of condemning [Donald Trump’s attacks on his family](http://time.com/4432816/donald-trump-khizr-ghazala-khan/) without retracting their endorsements of the GOP presidential candidate “It is so sad that this candidate \[Donald Trump\] is putting through our leaders—that they have to give these kind of statements, they have to clarify their positions, explain his thoughtlessness, his compass-less, his total lack of empathy,” Khan told TIME of Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sen. John McCain. “That they have to explain that they have to— it shouldn’t be at that level. They shouldn’t be responding, wasting their time to distance themselves from this candidate. But unfortunately, here we are.” Khan and his wife Ghazala have become something of [a flash point](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-on-muslim-at-dnc-id-like-to-hear-his-wife-say-something/article/2598221) in the presidential race after speaking out against Trump last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Trump has responded by attacking the Khans repeatedly. At one point he noted that Ghazala Khan stood silently during the convention speech, and implied she wasn’t allowed to speak because of their Muslim faith. “I’d like to hear his wife say something,” Trump told the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/opinion/trumps-thunderbolts.html?%5Fr=0). “Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me.” Those comments sparked [a further firestorm](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/30/politics/donald-trump-khizr-kahn-response/), but Ghazala Khan said she wasn’t offended. “I don’t think I’m offended because if someone doesn’t know about Islam what do you expect from him to say? He will say whatever he wants to,” she said. “But I don’t believe in him and I know how strong the women are in Islam. They are the heart of the husband and of the family.” Looking at Ghazala, her husband smiled and said: “She is my rock.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/"},"headline":"Khizr Khan: I Feel Sorry for Republicans Who Support Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-08-02T22:41:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:47.078Z","description":"“It is so sad\"","url":"https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","controversy","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt940f3ee7769b3b81/6988a0df0b72e33dfd6ea838/donald-trump-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jay Newton-Small","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt940f3ee7769b3b81/6988a0df0b72e33dfd6ea838/donald-trump-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Holds Rally In Ashburn, Virginia","caption":"Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign event at Briar Woods High School, on Aug. 2, 2016 in Ashburn, Va.","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4436076/khizr-khan-donald-trump-john-mccain/","name":"Khizr Khan: I Feel Sorry for Republicans Who Support Donald Trump"}}]}] ```