CEO DATELINE - Hispanic attorney group seeks apology from Trump
CEO DATELINE - Hispanic attorney group seeks apology from Trump
- March 1, 2016 |
- Walt Williams
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The Hispanic National Bar Association is calling on Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump to apologize for remarks suggesting a federal judge should recuse himself from a case involving one of the candidate's business ventures because he is Hispanic.
U.S. federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel is currently presiding over a class action lawsuit filed by several former customers of the now-defunct Trump University. At a political rally on Saturday, Trump brought up the lawsuit and indicated that he may ask Curiel to recuse himself because "there is a hostility towards me from the judge—tremendous hostility beyond belief—I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine."
"He's Hispanic, which is fine. And we haven't asked for a recusal, which we may do. But we have a judge who is very hostile," he said.
Questioned about his remarks the next day on Meet the Press, Trump suggested Curiel might be biased towards him because the candidate wants to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. (Yahoo! News noted that Curiel was born in Chicago.) http://yhoo.it/1QIZ9uC
In a statement, HBNA President Robert Maldonado said Trump's remarks "reached a new bottom."
"It is outrageous for any man or woman seeking the nation's highest office to presume that a judge's Hispanic heritage has any relevance in the proceedings of a class-action lawsuit," Maldonado said. "Mr. Trump's transparent attempts to inject racial bias into this issue are an insult not just to the Hispanic legal community, but to all Americans. He should apologize for his reckless rhetoric."
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