Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence defended a military mom’s right to criticize Donald Trump’s comments about the Muslim parents of a slain U.S. Army veteran during a campaign stop in Nevada, and then lashed out at the media’s coverage of the controversy at the next.
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Pence quieted a crowd that was booing a woman who asked Pence at a town hall meeting in Carson City Monday how he could tolerate Trump’s disrespect for American servicemen.
“Time and time again Trump has disrespected our nation’s armed forces and veterans — and his disrespect for Mr. Khan and his family is just an example of that,” Catherine Byrne, the mother of Raymond Harmon, who is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, said to Pence. “Will there ever be a point in time when you’re able to look Trump in the eye and tell him ‘Enough is enough?’ You have a son in the military. How do you tolerate his disrespect?”
As Pence called for quiet he said of Byrne, “that’s what freedom looks like. That’s what freedom sounds like.”
“I know this has been much in the news as of late in the last few days,” he added, acknowledging the controversy over Trump’s reaction to the Khan family. “But as I said last night … Captain Khan is an American hero and we honour him and honour his family.”
In Reno a few hours later, Pence said that both he and Trump have stated that “Capt. Humayun Khan is an American hero.”
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Pence said he understands and appreciates the attention given to Khan’s family. But he doesn’t understand “why the media maligned and continues to ignore the moving mother of fallen Air Force veteran and diplomat Sean Smith.”
Pence said much of the same media criticizing Trump earlier condemned Patricia Smith’s speech at the GOP convention about the U.S. information officer killed in the 2012 attack in Benghazi.
“Let’s demand the media listen to and honour all of the families of the fallen in this country,” he said.
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