In his first response to a searing charge from bereaved Army father Khizr Khan that he’d “sacrificed nothing” for his country, Donald Trump told ABC News that he had in fact sacrificed by employing “thousands and thousands of people.”

He also suggested that Khan’s wife didn’t speak because she was forbidden to as a Muslim: “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

And he questioned whether Khan’s words were his own: “Who wrote that? Did Hillary’s script writers write it? I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard.”

Meanwhile, Khizr and Ghazala Khan told MSNBC why they decided to call out Trump.

“Democrats marked a decisive turn in their campaign against Donald Trump this week, moving to recast the 2016 race not as a conventional battle between left and right but as a national emergency that requires voters of all stripes to band together against a singularly menacing candidate,” the New York Times reports.

“Abandoning their standard critique against conservative Republicans, allies of Hillary Clinton argued that Mr. Trump was not merely another champion of right-wing ideas, deserving of rejection for his views on the environment or health care.”

“Instead, in an onslaught of astonishing ferocity led by President Obama, they used their convention to portray Mr. Trump as a dangerously unstable figure and a friend of foreign despots like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Some Democrats suggested Mr. Trump might have authoritarian impulses of his own: Prominent in Mrs. Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night was a pointed reminder that the American system was designed to prevent the rise of a dictator.”

Gallup: “Trump’s speech got the least positive reviews of any speech we have tested after the fact: 35% of Americans interviewed last weekend said it was excellent or good. Of the nine previous speeches we have rated, the top one was Barack Obama’s in August 2008, which 58% of Americans rated as excellent or good.”

Donald Trump told ABC News that he wanted to “hit” some of the Democratic convention speakers “so hard” while watching them.

Said Trump: “You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard. I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor.”

He added: “I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”

Donald Trump distanced himself from his own Republican convention telling the New York Times, “I didn’t produce our show — I just showed up for the final speech on Thursday.”

“Most people don’t care about it. I’ve had very, very little pressure.”

— Donald Trump, telling Fox News he won’t released his tax returns.

Huffington Post: “Even as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has denied press credentials to news organizations throughout the 2016 election season, journalists generally have had another option: Get a ticket, like anyone else, and walk in.”

“But in a disturbing interaction Wednesday night, private security, in tandem with local Milwaukee law enforcement, detained and patted down Washington Post reporter Jose DelReal while searching for his cellphone at a public event featuring GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence. DelReal, who had already been denied entry with the press, was then also prohibited from attending as a member of the public.”

“The big story at the Democratic convention for most of Wednesday was not the Democrats — not Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine or even President Obama, the evening’s star speaker. It was Donald Trump, whose loose and provocative talk about the Russians and Clinton’s emails seemed exponentially beyond even his standards for creating turmoil and controversy,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump thrives on chaos and above all else demands attention. When the spotlight falls elsewhere, such as on the Democrats this week in Philadelphia, he looks to shift it back in his direction. He is a candidate who uses disruption as a strategic force. Wednesday was a textbook example — whether for good or ill.”

Paul Manafort told CBS News that Donald Trump would not be releasing his tax information.

Said Manafort: “Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them… It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process.”

Ron Fournier: “Trump must be made to release his tax records because he repeatedly promised to do so; because every major presidential candidate in the modern era has done so; because Richard Nixon released his tax returns while being audited, which is Trump’s latest excuse for reneging; because voters have a right to know how much he pays in taxes and to charities; because there are credible and concerning links between Trump and the Russian government, which is suspected of hacking the Democratic National Committee computers and leaking embarrassing bits.”

Donald Trump sought to distance himself from reports that Russian government hackers were responsible for the breach of Democratic National Committee servers in order to boost his presidential bid, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “In order to try and deflect the horror and stupidity of the Wikileakes disaster, the Dems said maybe it is Russia dealing with Trump… For the record, I have zero investments in Russia.”