You have to feel for the GOP’s leadership as the party tries to come to grips with the slippery snake-oil salesman that appears headed for Republican presidential nominee coronation.
Then again, the party got the nominee it deserves.
One day after endorsing (without using the “endorse” word ) Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan disavowed Trump’s accusations of bias against the “Mexican” judge in the Trump University case. The federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana.
On Friday, Ryan told a reporter that Trump’s comment was “out of left field.”
Later Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had a similar head-shaking moment during an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. McConnell told her he thought Trump’s recent attack on New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez was “completely unfortunate and unnecessary. These attacks don’t serve the candidate very well at this point,” he said.
The doofus Trump, campaigning in late May in Albuquerque, apparently just seized on a Latino-sounding name and falsely asserted that Martinez was allowing Syrian refugees to settle in the state. He also blamed her for unemployment numbers and the increase in the number of New Mexico residents on food stamps. We guess that not only did he not know the true facts, he also didn’t realize she is the most prominent Hispanic woman in American politics and the chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association. (Oh, it’s so hard to keep up with the thousands of important things he does not know.)
But not to worry. Just days after telling that Albuquerque audience that Martinez was doing her job so poorly that he might have to run for governor of New Mexico, he told the reporters at the Sante Fe New Mexican that he respects her and wants her endorsement.
This came the day after Trump tap-danced at a rally in California and said, “Ted Cruz is no longer a liar. We don’t see ‘Lying Ted’ anymore. We love Ted. We love him.”
Poor Paul. Poor Mitch.
Find your backbones, fellows.
If you lack one, at least listen to your conscience.