Joe Scarborough, MSNBC host and a former Republican congressman, said Tuesday that GOP leaders should begin withdrawing their endorsements from Donald Trump in light of his unrelenting attacks on a federal district judge’s Hispanic background.
“Right now, you are letting your presumptive nominee, who is making racist statements, run roughshod over what remaining national reputation we have as a national party,” Scarborough said on his show “Morning Joe” Tuesday. “You have to start calling him out today. This is not where you can do the slow boil. You have to start calling him out and saying you are going to retract your endorsement of him today …”
He said that if GOP leadership does not begin criticizing Trump, it will put the party’s control of Congress in doubt and threaten its standing as in future elections.
“Republicans, call him out, back away from those endorsements,” Scarborough said. “Make him back down on the Muslim ban. Make him back down on this racist comment that he’s made about a man born in Indiana saying he’s incapable of being a fair judge because of where his parents are born, or else you will lose the Senate, you will lose the House, you will lose the presidency, you will lose governorships, you will lose your standing as a national party. It’s that simple.”
Over the weekend, Trump defended his recent assertions that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American-born Indiana native, was “unfair to him” in an ongoing lawsuit against him and that it may have something to do with his Mexican immigrant parents, given that Trump has championed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Several leaders in the party, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said they disagreed with Trump’s accusations but they have not said it changed their support for him.
