Khizr Khan -- the father of a fallen U.S. Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan who died saving the lives of his fellow soldiers -- appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on Friday.
With his wife at his side, the father of the dead soldier called upon the Republican Party to denounce the poisonous anti-Muslim rhetoric of its presidential nominee, reality TV star and real estate tycoon Donald Trump.
"We are private, ordinary American citizens," said Mr. Khan, who delivered one of the 2016 Democratic National Convention's most electrifying speeches when he told the world about his son's sacrifice on Thursday night. "This political drama has heated up a little too much for us."
This was the family's first-ever political convention, he explained, which they attended in order to "be part of the tribute to our son."
Capt. Khan threw himself on to a suicide bomber's bomb vest in Iraq in 2004. He was killed when the vest detonated, but more than 20 of his comrades' lives were saved.
His father told O'Donnell -- voice breaking with emotion -- that aside from addressing Trump, he had a "second half" of the speech to deliver to Republican Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) and to Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).
"Isn't this time to repudiate Trump, what he has said?" Khan said. "What he has threatened to do? This is a moral imperative for both leaders to say to him 'That's enough. You are about to sink the ship of the patriot Republicans. Republicans are as patriotic as Democrats are. They're half of the goodness of this beautiful country, half of this political process that the rest of the world watches enviously, learns from it."
He continued, "They have disagreed with his practices, his threats to minorities, disrespect to the legal system and legal institutions. I want to ask them, 'If your candidate wins and he governs the way he has campaigned, this country, my country will have constitutional crises like never before in the history of this country.'"
"There is too much at stake and I appeal to both of these leaders," he said. "There comes a time in the history of a country when a moral stand must be taken, regardless of the political cost."
Watch the video, embedded below: