Republican condemnation of Donald Trump’s comments against Gonzalez Cureiel, a judge of Mexican heritage presiding over a lawsuit involving Trump University, suggests that the GOP establishment might abandon support for their presumptive Republican nominee.
“He is a member of a club or society very strongly pro Mexican, which is all fine,” said Trump on “Face the Nation”. “But I say he’s got bias. I want to build a wall.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan disavowed Trump’s comments. “Claiming a person cannot do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
GOP consultant Mark Murphy suggested that GOP leadership is ready to concede the presidency to Clinton.
“We’ve got a bum nominee. We might have to outlast one term of Hillary Clinton; that’s the ugly reality,” said Murphy.
Republican Senator Mark Kirk has since publicly unendorsed Trump.
Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gommorah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party, says the House Speaker’s condemnation of Trump, as well as rebukes by other senior Republicans, is in part a PR attempt to maintain GOP majority rule over Congress.
“They’re trying to keep their hands clean of his racism and his nativism, which is a sensibility that they have helped to cultivate within the mainstream of the party,” Blumenthal.