Donald Trump surrogate Corey Lewandowski on Monday joined in the campaign’s offensive against Khizr Khan, the father of an Muslim Army soldier who died serving in Iraq in 2004.

During a discussion on CNN about Trump’s attack on Khan, who called out the GOP nominee’s anti-Muslim policies at the Democratic National Convention last week, Lewandowski argued that the grieving father attacked Trump first.

“If Donald Trump was the president, Capt. Khan would still be alive today because we never would have entered the Iraq war in the first place,” Lewandowski declared. “This is something that the Khan family decided to engage in by going to the Democratic convention and telling their story.”

CNN’s John Berman pointed out that Trump had also attacked Capt. Humayun Khan’s mother for appearing on stage but not speaking during the convention.

“When someone attacks you publicly in front of the stage of millions of people, you have the ability to respond,” Lewandowski insisted.

“She didn’t say a word!” Hillary Clinton surrogate Christine Quinn interrupted. “This is ridiculous. It is outrageously un-American.”

“He does have the ability when someone attacks him personally and accuses him of something… he has the ability to fight back,” Lewandowski opined, later adding the Khan family “engaged in this discussion to begin with.”

“Their son is a hero and every person who has ever died fighting for our country and their families are heroes,” the CNN contributor added. “The difference is we’ve got 7,000 soldiers who died, $6 trillion wasted overseas that if Donald Trump was the president, we would never have had. And Capt. Khan would be alive today.”

According to Politifact, Trump told radio host Howard Stern prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2002 that he supported the war effort, but he then later turned against it as public sentiment soured.

Watch the video below from CNN, broadcast Aug. 1, 2016.

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