This Is What Paul Manafort Said About The Khans

At this point, Donald Trump's repugnant and xenophobic comments shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. However, it seems as if similarly abhorrent behavior should now be expected from the GOP nominee's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, as well. On a Thursday morning segment of CBS This Morning, Manafort failed to apologize to the Khan family for Trump's disparaging comments about them and their son, an Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004. In fact, Manafort said practically nothing in response to questions about Trump's undeniably offensive statements to the Khans, and instead dodged the question by (rather randomly) bringing up ISIS:

Mr. Trump was trying to talk about the fact that they [Khizr and Ghazala Khan] were caught up in something bigger than them. And yes he was sorry about the loss of their son, as we all are. But what he was trying to talk about was that the issue was the war — the rise of ISIS.

Almost unbelievable, right? Manafort offered no apology, and didn't even condemn Trump's treatment of the Khans. On July 28, Khizr Khan gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention, in which he questioned Trump's understanding of the U.S. Constitution and insisted that the GOP nominee has "sacrificed nothing" for his country. Sadly, Trump's response was (unsurprisingly) offensive.

First, the GOP nominee suggested that Ghazala Khan was not allowed to speak at the DNC because she is a Muslim woman. Nope, she chose not to speak because she's too distraught to talk about her fallen son. Trump also tweeted multiple times about the father's speech, and even defended his own remarks about the Khan family: "I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond?" According to The New York Times, Trump also defended his comments about the Khans in multiple interviews.

While all hope of an apology from the GOP nominee himself was certainly abandoned long ago, until Thursday, morning an apology from Manafort on behalf of Trump did not seem entirely implausible. However, it's now clear that no apology is going to come from anyone within the Trump campaign.

In fact, ABC News reported that in a Thursday morning appearance on Good Morning America, Manafort went so far as to suggest that Trump had acted respectfully toward the Khan family, saying, "I think Mr. Trump has paid the respect. It's just nobody is acknowledging it."

Nope, Manafort — you're not acknowledging that Trump's rhetoric must be stopped, and that the Khan family deserves an apology.