Trump’s comments ‘textbook’ racism, Ryan says
WASHINGTON • House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Donald Trump made the “textbook definition of a racist comment” in saying an American-born judge isn’t qualified to preside over a case because of his Mexican heritage.
“I regret those comments he made. Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said at a news conference. “I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.
“But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not,” he said.
Ryan’s comments highlight acute GOP divisions around Trump’s candidacy, as Republicans squirm over what may be the billionaire’s most incendiary stance to date — the claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can’t preside over his case fairly because the judge is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
The flap comes as Republicans are struggling to close ranks behind Trump, and complicates those efforts. Ryan endorsed Trump only last week after a lengthy delay, just before the judge controversy lit up, and affirmed that stance anew Tuesday.
“I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day, and we have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with” Clinton, Ryan said. “But I do absolutely disavow those comments, I think they’re wrong, I think they’re wrong-headed, and the thinking behind it is something I don’t even personally relate to.”
Democrats immediately ridiculed Ryan for denouncing Trump’s comments as racist yet continuing to back his candidacy.
“Paul Ryan continues to endorse someone who spews racist rhetoric — the ‘textbook definition’ of a coward more concerned with partisan politics than the good of the country,” said Meredith Kelly, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Curiel, who is presiding over a case alleging that Trump University fleeced students, was born in Indiana to parents who came from Mexico in the 1940s. Trump has been questioned repeatedly about his stance that the judge’s ethnicity makes him unqualified to preside over his case, but has refused to retract his comments.