On Wednesday, Dr. Ben Carson appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to address Donald Trump’s feud with the Gold Star family of a Muslim-American U.S. Army Commander who died in Iraq. Trump attacked Khan’s father, Khizr Khan, after he delivered a powerful speech at the Democratic convention, and he implied that Khan’s mother was silent because she wasn’t “allowed” to speak. Trump’s statements about the Khan family sparked outrage even within his own party; Arizona Senator John McCain, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and others distanced themselves from his remarks.
Asked whether Donald Trump should apologize to the Khan family, Carson — speaking as a surrogate for his former rival — replied, “I think we should clearly move on. I don’t think it would be harmful if they apologized to him and he apologized to them, but I don’t see that happening.” When Blitzer asked why Khan’s family should have to apologize to Trump, Carson said, “Well for one thing, if you accuse someone of something that’s not true, it usually is a reasonable thing to acknowledge that.” Carson then entered into one of his now-trademark tangents:
“Rather than make this a one-sided issue, why don’t we all just say, ‘back off a little bit, we have such important issues to deal with, let’s just call a truce?’ And the best way to call a truce is simply to say, ‘I’m over that, you’re over that, I’m sorry I said this, if it offended you, other side, I’m sorry I said that.'”
Blitzer did not follow up about what, if any, untrue accusations the Khan’s lodged against Trump.