Could a Muslim Judge Be Trump Neutral? Trump Thinks Not
By MAGGIE HABERMANJUNE 5, 2016
nytimes.com
Donald J. Trump said Sunday that a Muslim judge might have trouble remaining neutral in a lawsuit against him, extending his race-based criticism of the jurist overseeing the case to include religion and opening another path for Democrats who have criticized him sharply for his remarks.The comments, in an interview with John Dickerson, the host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” come amid growing disapproval from fellow Republicans over his attacks on Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, a federal judge in California overseeing a suit against the defunct Trump University, whose impartiality Mr. Trump questioned based on the judge’s Mexican heritage.
And they came as Republicans, concerned about how his remarks could harm their ability to retain control of the United States Senate and have a detrimental effect in races further down the ballot, continue to grapple with how to distance themselves from Mr. Trump’s rhetoric without alienating his die-hard -voters.
Mr. Trump has called Judge Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, a “Mexican” and said he has a “conflict of interest” in the case because of Mr. Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico. The case that Judge Curiel is overseeing is a class-action suit in which students of the for-profit operation say they were defrauded.
Mr. Dickerson asked Mr. Trump if, in his view, a Muslim judge would be similarly biased because of the Republican presumptive nominee’s call for a ban on Muslim immigrants. “It’s possible, yes,” Mr. Trump said. “Yeah. That would be possible. Absolutely.”
When Mr. Dickerson noted that there is a tradition in the United States, a nation of immigrants, against judging people based on their heritage, Mr. Trump replied: “I’m not talking about tradition. I’m talking about common sense, O.K.?”
At a recent rally in San Diego, where the suit is being heard, Mr. Trump engaged in a minutes-long attack on Judge Curiel over the suit, which cuts at the heart of the candidate’s appeal to voters as a successful businessman.With Mr. Dickerson and, in a separate interview, with Jake Tapper of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Trump repeated not only the criticisms of Judge Curiel, but he intensified them.
“He is a member of a club or society, very strongly pro-Mexican, which is all fine,” Mr. Trump said. “But I say he’s got bias. I want to build a wall. I’m going to build a wall. I’m doing very well with the Latinos, with the Hispanics, with the Mexicans, I’m doing very well with them, in my opinion.”
The candidate’s broadside against Judge Curiel was one of the most overtly racial remarks he has made in the presidential race, and it has been roundly criticized by prominent Republicans. It also came after Mr. Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the head of the Republican Governors Association and a star within her party, after she declined to appear with him at an event in her state.
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