JUNEAU — Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan on Monday condemned comments from his party’s presidential nominee about the parents of a decorated Army captain killed in Iraq.
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has publicly feuded with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004. Khizr Khan, the father of Capt. Humayun Khan, spoke at last week’s Democratic National Convention.
In a statement, Sullivan said he condemns “in the strongest terms possible any statement or action, including the recent remarks by Donald Trump, that undermines the sacrifice of Captain Khan and his family, or any of our other fallen American heroes.”
“Our men and women in uniform who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan or in more distant wars deserve nothing less than our steadfast gratitude for their sacrifices on behalf of our great nation,” said Sullivan, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps reserves.
Sullivan was the lone member of Alaska’s Republican congressional delegation to attend last month’s GOP national convention, and he spoke at the event. In the lead-up to the convention, Sullivan said he intends to support Trump but he also said he would speak out on areas in which he and Trump may disagree.
A Sullivan spokesman, Mike Anderson, said Sullivan was in Kotzebue on Monday and his schedule included attending a veterans’ luncheon.
Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski, said in a statement that Gold Star families who have lost loved ones in war “deserve our unconditional love and support for the burden of supreme sacrifice that has fallen squarely on their shoulders.”
“Donald Trump must honor and respect this most fundamental value,” Murkowski said.
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