Fox News host Megyn Kelly ripped Donald Trump for his outrageous attacks on US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
Trump has claimed Judge Curiel is unfit to hear Cohen v. Trump, the civil fraud lawsuit against “Trump University,” simply because he is Latino.
Judge Curiel, a well-respected jurist who received death threats as a prosecutor for busting drug cartels, is the US-born son of Mexican immigrants.
“I’m a journalist here at Fox News and I’ve been doing legal commentary here for 10 years — this is out of line,” said Kelly.
“People are saying this judge is a member of La Raza, the group that’s been protesting Donald Trump. He isn’t! He’s a member of a Hispanic lawyers association that has no partisan stripes whatsoever. They support Hispanic lawyers and judges. That’s it.”
“Secondly, the man is not Mexican. His parents are Mexican, he’s of Mexican heritage. He was born in Indiana.”
“Third, he has no conflict of interest. Now Donald Trump is saying the judge needs to be investigated, someone should look into him just because he’s ruled against Donald Trump in this litigation repeatedly.”
“That doesn’t make you biased. It doesn’t!”
“‘A Hispanic cannot judge a case against me.’ That is what Trump is saying. And let me tell you, when he does this, I guarantee you right now, that this judge is getting threats and vitriol and who knows what else.”
“Now he’s out saying this judge is a total disgrace, that they ought to look into him, and he’s on the precipice of becoming the president of the United States.”
As Frank Sharry noted earlier, Trump’s “insults show that Trump’s hatred is not limited to undocumented immigrants from Mexico, but extends to all 56 million Latinos in America.”
Legal scholars and reporters have spoken out against these egregious comments — “If claiming a qualified, vetted judge shouldn’t be able to do his job because of his race and ethnicity isn’t racist, then what the hell is?” asked Vox’s German Lopez in some media still failing to call out Trump’s racist comments for what they really are — while Republican leaders have despicably lined up behind Donald Trump and refused to condemn his insults.
It shouldn’t be hard to condemn someone for making racist comments about a Mexican judge. https://t.co/C6wINuPYN2
— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) June 3, 2016
This is a moment of truth for Republicans — and so far they are failing.
