Trump Doubles Down on Racial Attack Against Judge in His Fraud Case

07 Jun, 2016 by Dave Blount

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Incredibly, Trump is doubling down on his monumentally foolish racial attack on the judge overseeing his Trump University fraud case. This is unreal:

An embattled Donald Trump urgently rallied his most visible supporters to defend his attacks on a federal judge’s Mexican ancestry during a conference call on Monday in which he ordered them to question the judge’s credibility and impugn reporters as racists.

He wants the short-sighted fools who sold out to him to denounce as racist any reporter who draws attention to his own over-the-top racism. We’ll see how that flies.

When former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer interrupted the discussion to inform Trump that his own campaign had asked surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit in an e-mail on Sunday, Trump repeatedly demanded to know who sent the memo, and immediately overruled his staff.

“Take that order and throw it the hell out,” Trump said.

Any adults giving sensible advice are quickly overruled with the Donald at the helm.

“Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks?” Trump said. “That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”

That is, from the “best people” with whom he promised to surround himself.

This is only the latest in a seamless procession of screw-ups since Trump ostensibly secured the nomination:

A refusal to release his tax returns; confusion among donors over which super-PAC to give money to; audio of him using a pseudonym to act as his own publicist; and failing to donate to veterans groups as promised until pressed by the media.

But this is the pratfall that is making it crystal clear that to sign onto Trump is to contract political leprosy. Decent, responsible people are not going to support this unhinged jackass, or take a positive view of those who do.

This episode began when Trump denounced Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana and whose parents are US citizens, as being unfit to judge his case on the grounds of being Mexican. Trump has also claimed that Curiel is a member of La Raza, falsely conflating the radical group National Council of La Raza with an innocuous lawyers association that Curiel belongs to called La Raza Lawyers of California.

Even establishment figures (e.g., Mark Belling filling in for Rush Limbaugh yesterday) have been regurgitating the deceptive talking point that Curiel is a member of La Raza. Yesterday, Bill O’Reilly, while admitting that Curiel has done no wrong, called for him to recuse himself, basically on the grounds that the defendant (Trump) doesn’t trust him because of his Mexican ancestors. When the dust settles, there will be few left in the “conservative” media with more credibility than a Donald Trump sales pitch.

If Fox News is able to rebuild after this nightmare is over, firing Trump chumps Hannity, Van Susteren, and O’Reilly will be obvious first steps. At least Megyn Kelly has maintained some integrity:

One hour after Fox News heavyweight Bill O’Reilly opined that the federal judge hearing the Trump University case should recuse himself, Fox News host Megyn Kelly disagreed, saying, “That is not the way our system works.” …

Kelly [stated] that although judges must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, parties in a lawsuit can’t create such a conflict.

“If a litigant making stink about a judge necessarily resulted in a conflict that would force the judge to step down, it would lead to chaos in our court system,” she said.

There may be people who honestly agree with Trump on this, but even these outliers must realize that he has marginalized himself. Trump is going down, and he will take many others with him — but not anyone who doesn’t deserve it.