Trump’s latest disgrace goes beyond even the Khans

I am fully aware that much has been written concerning GOP nominee Donald Trump’s remarks about Khizr Khan’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. I have to add my thoughts because what Trump has said is so grotesque it cannot be allowed to pass.

{mosads}Khan’s most pointed, piercing and truthful statement was, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.” Trump sought to respond by saying the following, “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”

How unbelievably pathetic. This entire episode shows who Trump is. He has no idea of what the word “sacrifice” means. How low can you go?

First, he mocked a reporter with a disability. That wasn’t enough, so then he criticized Khan’s wife, Ghazala — the mother of a fallen soldier, one who has made the ultimate sacrifice — by implying that she had nothing to say or was forbidden to say it.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, is beyond this man. No one is spared. Not even the mother of a soldier who died fighting for his country. How sick can you be?

Then there is Trump’s explanation of his draft deferment status. I am about the same age as Trump and during the Vietnam War received student deferments and then an occupational deferment for teaching in the inner city. These exemptions were unfair, but I took them so I would not be drafted. They were legal, but I never deluded myself into thinking they were fair. The very last thing I ever thought of doing was in any way criticizing those who did serve their country and did not have the benefit of these exemptions.

In December 1969, I taught elementary school on the South Side of Chicago. I distinctly remember watching my small portable TV in my studio apartment as they called out the draft lottery numbers, which were assigned to birth dates. My number was 218.

In my local draft board, they stopped drafting young men at number 190. I was once again saved. No one who lived through this experience forgets these details. That is, no one but Trump, who, when it is convenient and in his interest, just plain lies.

In a 2011 TV interview, Trump said he watched the draft lottery as a college student: “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”

As The New York Times pointed out, this scenario was impossible and untrue. Trump had graduated 18 months before the lottery had taken place, so he was not in college at the time.

One would think that anyone who successfully avoided the draft, such as myself, would be extremely careful to get his facts right and definitely would not in any way have anything but empathy and respect for those who did serve.

The only person who might match Trump in this department is former secretary of Defense and Vice President Dick Cheney who, when asked about his five draft deferments during his confirmation hearing as secretary of Defense in 1989, said, “I would have been happy to serve if called.” He later, when questioned about that statement by a Washington Post reporter, said that he “had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”

Donald Trump and Dick Cheney: members of the same disgraceful club.

Plotkin is a political analyst, a contributor to the BBC on American politics and a columnist for The Georgetowner.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.