Imagine that: Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor now agree on the role of heritage in a judge’s ability to be impartial. They both say it’s a nonissue.
After a surprising — and reassuring — display of bipartisan disgust at Trump’s comments that Indiana-born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel is biased because his parents are Mexican immigrants, Trump had to backpedal. He released a statement that said his words had been “misconstrued,” adding: “I do not feel that one’s heritage makes (judges) incapable of being impartial.”
Even many of Trump’s supporters had denounced him. Speaker Paul Ryan called the candidate’s original comments about Curiel “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Newt Gingrich noted, accurately, “If a liberal were to attack Justice Clarence Thomas on the grounds that he’s black, we would all go crazy.”
Speaking of crazy, there was plenty of that too.
President George W. Bush’s disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came out of the woodwork to support Trump. In a Washington Post opinion piece that underscored several salient points why Curiel is beyond reproach — namely that while Curiel may be a member of a group called the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, it is not in any way affiliated with the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy organization — Gonzales sought to explain Trump’s unease.