Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted in a Thursday interview he is worried Donald Trump could push Latinos away from the Republican Party.
McConnell compared it to the impact Barry Goldwater’s vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did with African-American voters.
CNN host Jake Tapper asked McConnell if he believed Trump’s rhetoric and policy positions could continue to hurt the party’s standing with Hispanics, a critical voting bloc in the November election.
“I do and I think the attacks that he has routinely engaged in, for example, going after Susana Martinez, the Republican governor of New Mexico, was a big mistake,” McConnell said.
The Kentucky senator said despite Goldwater’s good qualities as a person, his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a “defining moment” for African Americans and the Republican Party.
While McConnell did not vote for Goldwater in 1964 because of the nominee’s stance on civil rights, the Kentucky senator has said he will support the New York businessman’s bid for president.
But McConnell added Trump needs to improve his tone in order to woo Latinos, only 12 percent of which approved of him, according to a Gallup poll from March.
“What he ought to be doing now is trying to unify the party, not attacking people,” McConnell said. “I don’t agree with everything Trump says or does, but we have a choice.”
