White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that it’s “ironic” for Republicans to say they’re outraged over Trump’s remarks about a judge’s Mexican heritage, since many of those same Republicans are opposing President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, and would let Trump pick the next Supreme Court judge if he wins.
“I would just point out that it’s a little ironic for Republicans in the Senate who say they have concerns about the Republican nominee’s view as it relates to judges to also say they are not going to confirm any judges until the presumptive nominee” has a chance to get elected president, he said.
“This is additional evidence of the uncomfortable positions that they have found themselves in,” Earnest said, adding that there are a “variety” of well-qualified Obama judicial nominees waiting for Senate confirmation.
“The truth is — I think that position would be indefensible even if they hadn’t already stated their own concerns about the ability of the [GOP] presidential nominee to discuss maturely our system of justice,” he said.
Earlier Monday, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he can’t endorse Trump at this point and said the real estate mogul’s questioning the impartiality of a judge weighing the Trump University case against him because of his Mexican heritage is a “new level.”
“It’s uncomfortable not having endorsed the Republican nominee, I have to say, but I can’t at this point,” Flake said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I hope to be able to support the nominee. I certainly can’t right now,” he said.
Flake on Friday night tweeted an even more powerful rejection of Trump’s remarks about the judge, and said his remarks were “ignorant, offensive & suggest a troubling disregard for the separation of powers.”
Late last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned Trump’s racially tinged comments against U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who last week ordered parts of internal Trump University documents, including sales pitch “playbooks,” to be released as part of the case.
Ryan had just announced his support for Trump before Trump told the Wall Street Journal Thursday night that Curiel had a conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage and the billionaire businessman’s ardent support for building a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border.
Instead of backing away from his remarks about the judge, Trump has called him “a hater” and has threatened a civil case against the judge if he becomes president, arguing that his Mexican heritage is an “inherent conflict of interest.”
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday editorialized against Trump’s decision not to back away from his comments on Curiel, calling them not “merely obnoxious” but “truly odious.”
