Donald Trump on Tuesday said Republicans who are critical of his comments against a federal judge with Mexican heritage “have to get over it” and “they shouldn’t be so angry for so long”.
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Clinton took direct aim at Donald Trump on Tuesday night as she claimed the Democratic nomination for president, calling out the billionaire for divisive rhetoric and casting his “Make America Great Again” slogan as “code for let’s take America backward”.
Meanwhile, they’ll continue to say they back Trump, if tepidly.
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday proposed an overhaul of the nation’s poverty programs, the first of several policy plans meant to unite the fractured Republican Party, but his agenda was immediately overshadowed by questions about Donald Trump.
“I’m building a wall”, Trump said.
Republican Senator Mark Kirk has since publicly unendorsed Trump. “So I haven’t given up hope, but certainly last week was not a good week for Donald Trump”. Trump said he didn’t believe he could get a fair hearing in front of Curiel because the judge is “a Mexican” and that Curiel should recuse himself because of his “Mexican heritage”.
The latest research from YouGov shows that only 20% of Americans think that Donald Trump was right to complain that Judge Gonzalo had a “conflict of interest” because of his Mexican ancestry. “Not as a Republican, not as a political person, but I think it’s just wrong as an American”.
Despite his climb down, Trump insisted he was justified in asking whether he will receive a fair trial, now slated to start weeks after the November general election.
“I am deeply concerned about Mr. Trump’s comments towards Judge Gonzalo Curiel”. The case was brought by former Trump University students, who contend that the for-profit education company amounted to fraud.
Ryan conceded that Trump’s comments do “undercut” the House GOP’s efforts to put forth a policy agenda this election year.
Still, the Senate majority leader maintains his support for Trump as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
“My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about and to start doing it now”, he told reporters. McConnell called on his party’s presumptive nominee to quit scrapping with various minority groups and “get on message” in order to win the White House.
Christie followed Ryan’s lead in pivoting to attack Clinton – accusing her of acting unjustifiably “high and mighty” towards her Republican rival.
TAPPER: Is it not – when Hillary Clinton says this is a racist attack, you reject that, if you are saying he can’t do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?
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“No, I’m not – I’m saying that the comment was”, Ryan said. The episode also stretched the limits of Trump’s fraying relations with numerous people who will officially nominate him in Cleveland in six weeks: Their standard-bearer had suddenly forced them to choose between being disloyal to the party and backing a candidate who attacks a judge’s ethnicity as part of a petty personal feud.
