Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is saying whatever he wants, regardless of how it makes his party look, and several top Republican legislators are publicly struggling as they realize they have little leverage to rein him in.
Several prominent Republicans bemoaned and disavowed Trump's recent racist comments on Tuesday, but many of those Republicans would still rather vote for him than drop their support.
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Trump has recently come under fire for saying Federal District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, who is presiding over a lawsuit against the now-closed Trump University, could be biased because of Curiel's Mexican heritage. Then he came under fire (again) for saying he'd say the same thing about a Muslim judge.
Trump has brought up Mexico, Mexican citizens and Muslims numerous times in campaign speeches. He notably called some Mexican immigrants "rapists" in his very first speech as a candidate for the presidency in 2016, and he has proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Top Republican legislators have struggled to align their support of Trump with their disappointment in recent outbursts.
“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said at an event Tuesday. “I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable."
But Ryan then reiterated his support for the man he had just criticized, saying he believes Republicans will have more success with Trump than with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when asked about Trump's comments, seemed to want to talk bout anything but.
“My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues the American people care about," he said, according to The New York Times.
Others pawned Trump's comments off as a simple gaffe, or hoped that he would eventually come around.
But South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who ran against Trump early in the presidential race and does not support him, urged other Republicans to rescind their backing for the presumptive nominee.
“This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy,” Graham told The New York Times. “If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it."
Later Tuesday, Trump said his comments about Curiel were misunderstood as an attack on all people of Mexican descent. So maybe some GOP leaders are getting through to him. Or maybe not.
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