Donald Trump has been caught in the middle of a firestorm of his own making once again. His attacks on the Mexican heritage of American born Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, have caused many Republicans to drop their support of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
To that end he issued a statement trying to clarify his remarks regarding the Trump University lawsuit.
And of course he blames the media for "misconstruing" his remarks.
It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.
You can read the rest of the statement here.
If you watch the above video from the June 5th edition of Face The Nation, host John Dickerson cornered Trump on his racial attacks on Judge Curiel. When he inserted a Muslim judge for a Mexican judge, Trump stayed the course and said that person could be biased against him because of ethnicity.
DICKERSON: So, what if it was a Muslim judge?
DICKERSON: My question is, if it were a Muslim judge, would you also feel like they wouldn`t be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours?
TRUMP: It`s possible, yes. Yes. That would be possible, absolutely.
DICKERSON: Isn`t there sort of a tradition, though, in America that we don`t judge people by who their parents were and where they came from?
TRUMP: I`m not talking about tradition. I`m talking about common sense. OK? He`s somebody -- he is proud of his heritage. And I think that`s great that he`s proud of his heritage.
DICKERSON: But you`re saying it`s a barrier to him doing his job.
TRUMP: He`s not treating me fair. He`s not treating me fairly.
DICKERSON: And you think it`s not because -- you think it`s because of where his parents came from?
To Trump, for a judge to treat him fairly means to rule in his favor. Period.
As you might expect, Twitter ain't buying the whole "misconstrued" argument:
"I'm sorry for my comments" is an apology.
"I'm sorry you misconstrued my comments" is, actually, not an apology.— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) June 7, 2016
Trump needs to build a wall. In front of his mouth: Says remarks about federal judge’s heritage were ‘misconstrued’ https://t.co/hFpOgijfMm
— Elizabeth Cobbs (@Elizabeth_Cobbs) June 8, 2016
RACIST THING
Wait. What?
RACIST THING
Are you kidding?
RACIST THING
Seriously?
RACIST THING
[reports racist thing]
I'VE BEEN MISCONSTRUED— golden state spice (@goldengateblond) June 8, 2016
My favorite reaction is not that there's no apology nor that "misconstrued" is misused. It's this: It's literate, so no way Trump wrote it.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) June 7, 2016
And finally, Oliver Willis wonders if the media will adopt the a clone guard mind...again:
"my racism was misconstrued"
"your racism was misconstured"
"i was misquoted"
"you were misquoted"
"move along" pic.twitter.com/TbGxnnG1Qc— Oliver Willis (@owillis) June 7, 2016
