On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Legal View,” Gold Star mom Karen Vaughn said that while the Khan family “probably had a right to be offended” over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s remarks, President Obama ignored a request by her and other families not to bring media to the return of the caskets of their children, and “if you’re going to just be outraged that one person says something that could be construed as a flippant remark without a lot of thought put behind it, what about the outrage over things people do? What about the outrage over Hillary Clinton still to date insinuating those grieving parents who say she said one thing must be mistaken?”
Vaughn began by describing her meeting with Trump by saying, “[T]he atmosphere in the room was very warm, very compassionate. If I could describe his demeanor with us, it was gentle, soft-spoken, and tender, and i felt like he got what we’ve given. he understood. it was a very good meeting, and we talked about, we didn’t talk about the Khan situation at all, because frankly, as a Gold Star mom, I’m not that easily offended by things like this. I don’t hold it against anybody else who is. I’m just not personally, and most of the people I know aren’t personally offended by things like that. So, we talked about substantive things.”
She added, “[T]here’s just a lot more important things going on. I mean, this story has been going on for a week now, and I’m not saying — Mrs. Khan probably had a right to be offended by it, you know, but the thing is, let me just tell you my perspective. Words don’t mean as much to me as actions. That’s just me. When my son was killed, he was killed in the largest loss of life in the history of Naval special warfare, and we had 30 families at Dover Air Base waiting for our sons to be — our sons bodies to be returned from Afghanistan. And what we experienced there was, and I’m not just trying to — I’m just trying to draw a contrast, I’m not trying to bring up old news, but what we experienced there is the families unanimously asked Barack Obama to not bring any media, to not make this a media event, that he was welcome to be with us, but no media. And he showed up with cameras, and the next day, our pictures — or his picture saluting the caskets of our boys was plastered over every outlet in America, I guess. And I’m just saying, if you’re going to just be outraged that one person says something that could be construed as a flippant remark without a lot of thought put behind it, what about the outrage over things people do, what about the outrage over Hillary Clinton still to date insinuating those grieving parents who say she said one thing must be mistaken? You know, it’s just actions mean a lot more to me than words. That’s just kind of the angle I come from on it. And I have full respect for the Khan family. I’m thankful for them. I’m thankful to God for their son and his willingness to fight and die for their country. I admire their family, so it’s not personal about them. I just think a lot of us come at these things from different angles and see it differently.”
(h/t Grabien)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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