On Tuesday night, in what was billed as an interview, Bill O’Reilly joined Donald Trump’s character assault on Khizr Khan, the gold star father who criticized Trump at the Democratic convention.
Since that speech Trump has launched various attacks on the Khan family. He said Khizr Khan had “no right” to question his knowledge of the Constitution, describing his speech as a “vicious.”
I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016
Trump also claimed that Khizr Khan’s wife, Ghazala, did not speak at the convention because the Muslim faith prohibited her from talking. (This was not true.)
Bill O’Reilly escalated the attack on Khizr Khan during his show Tuesday night. He said that Khan was “obviously hired by the Clinton campaign” to deliever his speech attacking Trump.
O’Reilly did not elaborate but the use of the word “hired” strongly implied that Khan was paid by the Clinton campaign. He provided no proof to back up his incendiary claim. Trump responded approvingly, saying he understood the speech was a plot orchestrated by Clinton and the media.
Politico published a detailed account of how Khan came to speak at the convention. Although he was invited to speak by the campaign, Khan wrote the speech himself.
Trump’s Veterans co-chair told ThinkProgress on Monday that he believed Khizr Khan was an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood. This does not appear to have impacted his role with the campaign.
Although his criticisms of Khan has prompted widespread condemnation, Trump is not second-guessing himself. “I don’t regret anything,” Trump said in a separate interview Tuesday with Sinclair Broadcast Group.