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Veteran speaks out on Trump's treatment of Gold Star family

By Blake Hanson
By Blake Hanson

CORNELIUS, N.C. — A local veteran wrote a piece in a North Carolina paper Tuesday blasting Donald Trump's treatment of a Gold Star family.

In the column, combat veteran Chris Boggiano said he voted for Gov. Pat McCrory in 2012 but was upset the governor is standing by Trump and won't support him now.

Attorney General Roy Cooper's gubernatorial campaign helped coordinate the interview.

Boggiano, a Cornelius resident and U.S. Army vet, spoke with me about his memory of that day in 2004 -- the last day of Capt. Humayan Khan's life.

“I was actually standing next to my tank at the time the explosion happened,” Boggiano said.

Khan was a hero that day, he said.
 
"When the car was approaching the gate, most people ran and dove for cover and he went toward the car and it was over in an instant but that's heroism," Boggiano said.
 
Boggiano considers himself a moderate but said comments Trump made about his fellow serviceman's family led him to speak up.
 
"To be so casually dismissive about another family's sacrifice is just unsettling to the highest degree," Boggiano said.
 
Trump questioned whether Khan's father's speech at the Democratic National Convention was written by Hillary Clinton's speech writers and he also speculated about Khan's mother.
 
"If you look at his wife, she was standing there," Trump said about the speech at the DNC. "She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say."
 
Boggiano said he can still be swayed but says it's unlikely.
 
"I would never foreclose having a change of heart but based on his past actions, he's not a person who has shown an aptitude for apology or actual remorse," Boggiano said. 
 
Eric Trump said his father has called Khan a hero and the feud was blown out of proportion.

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