Unwavering Trump advocate Jeffrey Lord appeared on CNN's New Day on Monday morning and attempted to quell criticism of the GOP presidential candidate's ongoing battle with the grieving family of war hero Capt. Humayun Khan by dismissing attacks on the family as "politics."
After being presented with a letter from the Gold Star families calling Trump's comments, "repugnant, and personally offensive," Lord dismissed the whole affair, reports Media Matters.
'This is politics. I hate to say this -- and let me make very clear, Captain Khan obviously, obviously was an American hero," Lord rationalized. "But to be perfectly candid, any time anybody, anybody, the Khans or anyone else, stands in front of a Democratic or Republican National Convention and delivers a political attack against a candidate, they are opening themselves up to disagreement. And that's what's happened. It's nothing more than that."
Host Poppy Harlow countered, "So, the question, Jeffrey -- well, it is more than that, because this is the life of a fallen American soldier --" only to have Lord talk over her and say, "No, Poppy, I'm afraid not. "
Retired General Mark Hertling jumped in to contradict Lord, saying, "It is definitely more than that, Jeffrey. It is more than politics, it is leadership."
"And it is more than that in terms of how it has affected these other families,"Harlow continued. "There are over 470,000 Gold Star families in this country right now. And I don't know their loss, many of us don't know their loss. So it's more than politics, isn't it, Jeffrey Lord?"
Lord again shrugged off the complaints, saying anyone who speaks at a political convention should expect to become a target.
"When anybody, anybody, Gold Star or not, gets up and attacks a presidential candidate at a national convention, that is politics. Mr. Khan, and I listened to him this morning, is giving Donald Trump political lectures I have my copy of the Constitution too," Lord said while holding up a pocket-sized edition."He is well within his rights to do so. Donald Trump is well within his rights to respond. You don't get to do this and then say, 'oh, no, you can't attack me, I'm off limits. I'm sorry.' Your very presence there signifies otherwise. You are in a leadership position when you are making an attack on a presidential candidate at a national convention. That's just a fact."
Watch the video below posted to YouTube by Media Matters:
