Trump's trap: GOP nominee can't let go of perceived slights
The Republican nominee can't let go of a perceived slight, no matter the potential damage to his presidential campaign or political reputation.
Trump spent the days after winning the Republican nomination criticizing a U.S. district court judge's Mexican heritage.
The morning after accepting the Republican nomination at the party's convention, Trump re-litigated months-old grievances with primary rival Ted Cruz.
Republican leaders have urged Trump to drop his attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, who appeared at last week's Democratic convention and harshly criticized the GOP nominee.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who has advised Trump, said the candidate's inability to back away from a political land mine "makes him vulnerable."
Khan said that if Trump were president and enacted his proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims coming to the U.S., a position Trump has backed away from in recent weeks, his son would have never been allowed into the country.
Rep. Mike Coffman, a vulnerable Republican in a competitive Colorado district, said he was "deeply offended when Donald Trump fails to honor the sacrifices of all of our brave soldiers who were lost in that war."
Dale Brown, a maintenance supervisor from Grove City, Ohio, whose son is in the Navy, said Democrats were blowing Trump's comments out of proportion and had "politicized this by asking that family to speak."