Scott Walker distances himself from Trump’s Gold Star attack

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has a simple message for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump: Look at my wrist.

{mosads}Pulling up the sleeve of his navy blazer, Walker showed The Hill the black wristband he’s wearing to commemorate a young U.S. soldier, Christopher Horton, who died in Afghanistan.

Walker, who dropped his own presidential bid last September and endorsed Trump in July, said he rotates these bands regularly to remind himself of the young American men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Walker said there’s no place for attacks such as the one Trump launched against the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004. 

The father of the dead soldier, Khizr Khan, made headlines when he confronted Trump in a powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention last week in Philadelphia.

Trump rebutted the speech by suggesting Khan wouldn’t allow his wife to speak at the convention because of his Muslim faith.

The billionaire’s comments sparked one of the biggest controversies of a controversial campaign.

“To me, I just think about it, from my point of view, just from a personal, not even a political level. I hold Gold Star families in such reverence,” Walker told The Hill in an interview on Sunday evening at a luxury hotel bar here at a summer donor retreat convened by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

“They’ve earned our respect. I would never — I don’t care what they say, you’ll never hear me question anything about a Gold Star family.”

Walker said his defense of the Khans was “personal.”

“I’ve gone to too many funerals. I’ve met too many families and it’s just — what they’ve sacrificed is unbelievable.”