Karen Vaughn, Gold Star Mom, To Khan Family: ‘You Don’t Get Special Privilege’

Karen Vaughn, a Gold Star mother whose son, Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn, was killed in action in the Middle East, appeared on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show this weekend to discuss Donald Trump and the controversy that arose as a result of his comments that another Gold Star mom “was not allowed to speak” at the Democratic National Convention.

Vaughn, a supporter of the Trump campaign, acknowledged that Khan had a “right to be offended,” but said the rest of the country didn’t have to do it for her.

“My husband and I were very vocal about what we thought about this administration after our son’s death, with his rules of engagement, and we took a lot of flak for it and we were willing to take it.”

It was here that Karen Vaughn grew critical of Khizr Khan and his wife, stating that “if they were anything like me, they surely had to expect some sort of blowback from this when you personally attack somebody from a very very public stage.”

She continued.

“So they’re offended. Okay. The whole nation doesn’t need to weigh in. They’re just one family. Families get offended all the time and one thing that I like to say is that, because I’m a Gold Star mother, I don’t think that gives me special privilege. I don’t think that means people need to bow down in my presence. And I don’t think if I say something really horrible about somebody that they don’t have a right to respond.”

That said, Karen Vaughn felt like the Khans needed to engage politically if they felt they had something to say as she and her husband did.

For the Vaughns, that “something to say” was criticism for the Obama administration over military rules of engagement that Karen called “negligent” and responsible for the deaths of her son “and 29 other brave, fearless Americans” who died with him.

@KarenVaughn_GSM our condolences go out to you and your family on this day. #NeverForget #Extortion17 RIP Aaron pic.twitter.com/5pbRTC93Fj

— April T (@truepatriotlady) August 6, 2016

Later in the segment, Greta asked Karen Vaughn what her thoughts were on Donald Trump, to which the Gold Star mom said, “I do plan to vote for Donald Trump,” and that she found him to be an “extraordinarily warm, kind, well-spoken, gentle man” when talking with him ahead of a Jacksonville, Florida, campaign rally.

Vaughn and other Gold Star families met with Trump to discuss the rules of engagement that many blame for their children’s and other loved ones’ deaths and to emphasize that the country is at war and that Trump is its best hope.

“We spent our time talking about the future of our country,” Vaughn said. “The things that our sons at that table — and in some cases, our fathers, brothers — gave their lives for. That’s what was critical to us. To talk about what the endgame was in this war.”

Vaughn said that in a previous meeting with President Obama, no endgame was discussed and that the administration “has actually said negative things about the word ‘victory,’ and I wonder how demoralizing that is for our troops.”

FoxNews:.KarenVaughn_GSM: “Enough already with this outrage culture.” #Greta pic.twitter.com/lkRrjp2vpY

— Real Patriots (@OurVoice911) August 5, 2016

As far as outrage is concerned, the Gold Star mom said, what Americans should really be outraged over is the fact that there is a woman running for President, “who stood over the caskets of four dead Americans and lied to their family members.”

Vaughn called Hillary Clinton’s blaming a video for the Benghazi attack and then saying relatives of those killed were mistaken “egregious.”

“People can be offended by that if they want, and they have a right to be if they want to, but the egregious thing here is we have this candidate, who physically had a role to play in the deaths of those men and certainly had a role when she told the family members that it was a videotape that caused the outbreak there. And not only that, even more egregious than that, if people want to be outraged, how about the fact that she’s still today saying these family members are lying about what they said?”

What do you think about the remarks of Karen Vaughn regarding Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and, specifically, her critical message of the Khans? Sound off in the comments section below.

[Image via U.S. Army | Flickr Creative Commons | Resized and Cropped | CC BY 2.0]