Donald Trump doubled down Wednesday on comments a Muslim American soldier who died in Iraq in 2004 "would be alive today" if the Republican nominee had been president.
"Had I been president, Captain Khan would be alive today," the Republican nominee told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. "We wouldn't have been in this horrible, horrible mistake — the war in Iraq."
Humayun Khan, 27, of Bristow, Va., was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004. He was awarded the Purple Heart and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Khan's father, Khizr, slammed Trump at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia over this plan to ban Muslims, charging he had "sacrificed nothing and no one" in his life.
Trump responded by attacking Khan's wife, Ghazala Khan, who stood by silently on the stage as her husband ripped the nominee.
Ghazala Khan "was standing there," Trump told Stephanopoulos in an interview after the attack.
"She had nothing to say," he added. "She probably — maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."
Khizr Khan has appeared in a campaign commercial for Democrat Hillary Clinton and spoken at a rally in Virginia.
He ripped Trump on CNN as having "total ignorance" by attacking his wife in August.
Clinton called on Trump to apologize to the Khan family in their second debate at Washington University in St. Louis earlier this month.
But when asked Wednesday about an apology to the Khans by Stephanopoulos, Trump declined to say whether he would do so — only noting he had "great respect" for the family.
"I have great respect for — I mean — the son is a great hero," Trump said.
The nominee also said again he opposed the Iraq war — though Stephanopoulos referenced a 2002 tape from "The Howard Stern Show" in which Trump said "Yeah, I guess so" in response to a question in favor of going into Baghdad.
"That was the first time I was ever even asked about Iraq," Trump said of the radio interview. "That was long — that was way before.
"If you look at just before the war started, I said: 'Don't do it. It's a mistake. You're going to destabilize the Middle East.'"
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