Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) called out his Republican colleagues in the Senate for failing to condemn en masse the “racist rants” of their nominee for President, Donald Trump.
“The remarks of the presumptive Republican nominee for President about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are taking this nation and the Republican Party down a dark and slippery slope,” said Sen. Menendez during his floor speech.
“The road to some of the darkest moments of history have been paved with the rants of petty demagogues against ethnic minorities for centuries. And now, again, in this century Donald Trump is echoing those same racist rants and, by doing so, threatening to take this nation to a dangerous place.
Calling Trump “a petty demagogue,” the Senate’s most senior Latino leader said the attempts from his Republican colleagues to distance themselves from Trump without condemnation are simply unacceptable:
“Many of my colleagues must recognize – as do I — that a federal judge born in Indiana with a Mexican family background is not a Mexican judge but an American judge – just as a United States Senator like this one, raised in New Jersey with a Cuban family background, is a United States Senator. And to imply otherwise — to ask that Judge Curiel recuse himself from a case because of where his parents were born – is, on its face, racist.
“They need to come to this floor and denounce the comments of their nominee. In fact, all Americans should denounce this kind of blatant racism, the tone of the Trump campaign and the slippery slope that his statements, his actions, his demeanor, threaten to send us down.”
“Today we are all Judge Gonzalo Curiel – and today we stand together as one nation, indivisible – no matter how hard someone tries to divide us.
“I repeat: The road to some of the darkest moments in history have been paved with the rants of petty demagogues against ethnic minorities for centuries – and Donald Trump is echoing those same racist rants, threatening to take this nation to a dangerous place. Let’s – all of us – speak out before it’s too late.”
