GOP, Democrats thump Trump for questioning judge over race

WASHINGTON — Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump was roundly scolded by members of his own party and Democrats on Monday, demanding the candidate apologize for — and just stop — talking about the ethnic background and impartiality of the American judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University.

Leading the call were two former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted that Trump’s offensive against the impartiality of US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel “is flat-out wrong.”

Trump, Kasich wrote, should “apologize to Judge Curiel & try to unite this country.”

Chimed in Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, “It’s wrong and I hope he stops.”

Other prominent Republicans piled on, drawing a demarcation between themselves and the billionaire candidate with whom they’ve developed a fragile peace. But that detente comes with caveats — chief of which is the understanding that Trump, nomination nearly in hand, will now focus on uniting the fractured GOP.

Trump, too, showed some deference for the truce, declining to immediately hit back at the Republican lawmakers who have demanded he change focus.

No mea culpa seemed forthcoming from the billionaire candidate. Trump insisted earlier Monday that his criticism of Curiel came in response to relentless questions from reporters and others about lawsuits against Trump University. Trump said Curiel can’t be impartial in the suits because the jurist’s parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the border. Last week, he denied on CNN that his remarks were racist.

“Public Service Announcement: Saying someone can’t do a specific job because of his or her race is the literal definition of ‘racism,'” tweeted Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a longtime Trump critic.

Curiel is a former federal prosecutor who was born in Indiana to parents who came from Mexico in the 1940s. He has not responded to Trump’s attack, and Trump’s legal team has not sought his removal from the case. Judges generally are thought to have conflicts of interest only in specific situations, such as a financial interest in the outcome of the case.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits — in San Diego and New York — which accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach them secrets of success in real estate. Trump has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied. Curiel is presiding over the suits in California.

“All I’m trying to do is figure out why I’m being treated so unfairly by a judge,” Trump said Monday on Fox News Channel.

While criticism from Republicans against their presumptive nominee was somewhat restrained, Democrats spoke unhindered.

Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas said in an open letter that Trump’s “ignorant anti-immigrant opinions,” border wall rhetoric and continued attacks on the judge “are just plain despicable.”

Vela, who represents a district in southern Texas along the US-Mexico border, called Trump a racist, adding, “You can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.”

In the Senate, top Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada lobbed a blistering fusillade at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for failing to denounce Trump’s attacks on the judge.

Reid said “McConnell is the poster boy for Republicans’ spinelessness that allowed Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee” after the Kentucky Republican declined to label Trump’s assault on Curiel as racist.

Reid said Trump is the natural result of Washington Republicans’ anti-Obama agenda, saying GOP leaders have “embraced the darkest elements within their party.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump promises to build a wall along the 2,000-mile US-Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. Some 650 miles of border fencing now sits on the border, including roughly 15-foot-tall steel fencing in many urban areas that is designed to stop or slow those trying to cross the border on foot.

Vela said he would rather “tear the existing wall to pieces.”

While there’s no doubt that Mexico “has its problems,” it is also a US neighbor and its third-largest trading partner, Vela said. The US Chamber of Commerce has documented that trade with Mexico accounts for at least 6 million jobs in the United States, he said.