Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), a prominent Donald Trump supporter, on Wednesday called Khizr Khan, the father of a slain Muslim American soldier, a “con artist.”
As reported by Maine Public Broadcasting, LePage criticized Khan’s Democratic National Convention speech in which he slammed the GOP presidential nominee for not sacrificing anything for his country.
{mosads}“Then there’s the all mighty powerful ones like Mr. Khan — which is a con artist himself, and he uses the death of his son, who’s an American soldier, which we respect and honor, and he uses that to go after Trump, which I found very distasteful,” LePage said in a radio interview with Howie Carr.
The governor’s comments came after Carr compared an Iranian refugee who immigrated to Maine and died fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with the Chechen Boston Marathon bombers.
Trump himself criticized Khan in the past, saying he had no right to question his views on the Constitution. He also suggested Khan’s wife was not allowed to speak at the convention because of her religion.
“I don’t regret anything,” Trump said later about the incident.
“I said nice things about the son, and I feel that very strongly. But, of course, I was hit very hard from the stage, and you know it’s just one of those things — but, no, I don’t regret anything.”