(CN) - The parents of a decorated Muslim Army captain killed in Iraq said Monday they want to extricate themselves from the highly public feud with GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to maintain their dignity.
"We want out of this controversy," Khizer Kahn said during a televised interview Monday morning.
"[This] is not our style," Kahn told CNN. "This is not our path ... We want to maintain our dignity."
Meanwhile, top GOP lawmaters have come to the Kahn's defense against their party's presidential nominee, among them Arizona Sen. John McCain, who said Trump's nomination was not an "unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."
Khizr Khan gave a emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday in which he rebuked Trump for the hateful rhetoric he's spewed toward Muslims in interviews and particularly on the campaign trail.
Khan's son, Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004 by a vehicle filled with explosives. According to the Pentagon, Khan saved the lives of several other soldiers by urging them to stay back while he approached it.
"Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy," he said as his wife stood by his side. "Look for the words 'liberty' and 'equal protection of law.' Have you ever been to Arlington National Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending this country."
"You have sacrificed nothing," he said.
Trump, who prides himself on being a counter-puncher, erupted in a way rare even for him, and in the process broke a political taboo demeaning the family of a soldier who died for his country. Specifically, Trump tweeted that Ghazala Khan did not speak alongside her husband at last week's Democratic convention because they are Muslim and she was not allowed to speak.
Outraged, on Friday, Khazir Khan pleaded with Republican leaders to repudiate the party's standard-bearer, saying "If your candidate wins and he governs the way he has campaigned, my country, this country, will have constitutional crises [like] never before."
But Trump doubled-down, saying Khan's remarks were not from the heart, but instead were actually prepared by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
That effectively assured the controversy would roil throughout the weekend.
Nearly a dozen Gold Star families published a joint letter through the progressive non-profit VoteVets.org website, demanding that Trump apologize for his comments.
Eleven of the families that signed the letter had sons that were killed in Iraq. One of the families that signed the letter was that of soldier who died in Vietnam.
"Your recent comments regarding the Khan family were repugnant, and personally offensive to us," the letter says. "When you question a mother's pain, by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice."
Meanwhile, Trump kept Tweeting.
"Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our "leaders" to eradicate it!," he said.
