Khizr Khan revs up rally before introducing Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire
MANCHESTER, N.H. — In a call and response with voters here Sunday night, Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, portrayed a dark vision of the country if Donald Trump were to win Tuesday’s presidential election.
“I have a few questions for you, Donald Trump,” Khan said as he introduced Hillary Clinton.
“Donald Trump, would my son Captain Humayun Khan have a place in your America?”
A scattering of attendees responded, “No.”
“Would Muslims have a place in your America?”
The answer grew louder: “No.”
“Would Latinos have a place in your America?”
“No,” the audience erupted.
“Would African-Americans have a place in your America?”
“No,” they said, growing louder.
“Would anyone who is not like you have a place in your America?” an animated Khan concluded.
The crowd now yelled in unison, some thrusting fist and Clinton-Kaine signs in the air: “No!”
“Well, thankfully, Mr. Trump, this isn’t your America,” Khan said.
For the past two days, Clinton has tried to make a closing argument focused on urging voters to reject what she called Trump’s “dark and divisive vision of America” and instead choose her “hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted, united America.”
But it took Khan, who delivered a showstopper of a speech in July at the Democratic National Convention when he pulled a copy of the Constitution out of his jacket pocket and waved it as he talked about Trump, to bring an emotional core to the message.
He talked about the outpouring of support he and his wife, Ghazala Khan, had received after Trump took aim at them, saying Ghazala Khan did not speak at the convention because she was not “allowed” to.
A mother told Khizr Khan that her 10-year-old son, who had been bullied at school, had watched his speech daily to remind himself that he could get through it. The teacher eventually showed Khizr Khan’s speech to the entire class. The bullying stopped, Khizr Khan said.
The campaign has used Khizr Khan sparingly but effectively. He spoke in an advertisement aired in battleground states and held events last month with veterans in Virginia at which he presented Clinton as a force for tolerance in a divisive election season.
Clinton took the stage here and said the scars from this election season would endure.
“We will have some work to do to bring healing and reconciliation after this election,” she said. “We haven’t been listening to one another and respecting one another.”
New Hampshire does not hold happy memories for Clinton, who lost the state’s primary to Sen. Bernie Sanders, of neighboring Vermont, by more than 20 points. But compared with sparring with Trump, even that loss does not seem so bad, she said.
“I have to say, you all cleaned my clock in the primary,” Clinton told voters here. “But it was a great primary because it was about issues, not insults.”
