Post by Willow on Jun 7, 2016 11:54:07 GMT 9.5
US election 2016: GOP alarmed by Donald Trump’s Hispanic attacks
It makes me very nervous to think this man could be in charge of one of the most influential countries in the world
Senior Republicans fear that Donald Trump is leading his party into an electoral wilderness as his tirades against a Hispanic federal judge threatened to further alienate America’s fastest growing minority group.
Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Mr Trump’s attacks on Hispanics could turn them against his party for generations.
Mr Trump has hinted at assuming a more presidential mien. There has, however, been no transformation. Instead, the presumptive nominee has alarmed Republicans by repeatedly criticising California judge Gonzalo Curiel, alleging his ethnicity means he is incapable of treating the tycoon fairly.
Judge Curiel, who was born in Chicago to parents from Mexico, is overseeing a class-action fraud case brought by former students of Trump University. The venture is alleged to have duped 5000 customers out of up to $US40 million. Asked to explain why he believed the American judge was biased against him, Mr Trump said: “He’s a Mexican.”
The tycoon told The Wall Street Journal: “I’m building a wall (on the Mexican border). It’s an absolute conflict of interest.”
Mr Trump last week called the judge “a hater of Donald Trump” and “a total disgrace”, while again referring to his ethnicity. Several senior Republicans and legal scholars suggested the attacks had crossed a line.
Senator McConnell said the criticism put the Republican Party at risk of losing in the states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia and Florida. On Friday, a day after endorsing Mr Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced him for his comments on the judge. Mr Ryan said: “It’s reasoning I don’t relate to.”
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had previously been one of Mr Trump’s most vocal supporters, told The Washington Post: “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.”
It had seemed that Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican operative hired by the billionaire in March, would be the ideal Washington insider to wipe out the tycoon’s rough edges, but Mr Trump has admitted, more or less, that when he is not being controversial, his events become boring. “I sort of don’t like toning it down,” he said.
He responded to attacks on Trump University by saying he would reopen the business.
The Times
It makes me very nervous to think this man could be in charge of one of the most influential countries in the world
Senior Republicans fear that Donald Trump is leading his party into an electoral wilderness as his tirades against a Hispanic federal judge threatened to further alienate America’s fastest growing minority group.
Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Mr Trump’s attacks on Hispanics could turn them against his party for generations.
Mr Trump has hinted at assuming a more presidential mien. There has, however, been no transformation. Instead, the presumptive nominee has alarmed Republicans by repeatedly criticising California judge Gonzalo Curiel, alleging his ethnicity means he is incapable of treating the tycoon fairly.
Judge Curiel, who was born in Chicago to parents from Mexico, is overseeing a class-action fraud case brought by former students of Trump University. The venture is alleged to have duped 5000 customers out of up to $US40 million. Asked to explain why he believed the American judge was biased against him, Mr Trump said: “He’s a Mexican.”
The tycoon told The Wall Street Journal: “I’m building a wall (on the Mexican border). It’s an absolute conflict of interest.”
Mr Trump last week called the judge “a hater of Donald Trump” and “a total disgrace”, while again referring to his ethnicity. Several senior Republicans and legal scholars suggested the attacks had crossed a line.
Senator McConnell said the criticism put the Republican Party at risk of losing in the states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia and Florida. On Friday, a day after endorsing Mr Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced him for his comments on the judge. Mr Ryan said: “It’s reasoning I don’t relate to.”
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had previously been one of Mr Trump’s most vocal supporters, told The Washington Post: “I don’t know what Trump’s reasoning was, and I don’t care. His description of the judge in terms of his parentage is completely unacceptable.”
It had seemed that Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican operative hired by the billionaire in March, would be the ideal Washington insider to wipe out the tycoon’s rough edges, but Mr Trump has admitted, more or less, that when he is not being controversial, his events become boring. “I sort of don’t like toning it down,” he said.
He responded to attacks on Trump University by saying he would reopen the business.
The Times