Last Friday’s rally by Donald Trump here in San Diego took an unusual turn when he decided to publicly bash the local judge overseeing the class action lawsuits against Trump University.
Trump’s rally at the Convention Center had all the trappings of a typical campaign event. US flags. Check. Politicians wanting to share the stage with the presumptive nominee. Check. Thousands of enthusiastic supporters with the requisite Trump hats and t-shirts. Check and check.
Even Sarah Palin made a surprise appearance to warm up the crowd with her catchy plain talkin’ catch phrases like “not givin’ a flyin flip” and “we’ll put a boot up your ass because that’s the American way”.
Then Trump took the stage to loud rock music and thunderous applause. He lit into Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and all the usual stump speech topics.
But, then Trump starting talking about the two class action lawsuits against his now-defunct Trump University, a real estate course sold to wannabe investors for up to $35,000 per person. Former students are now suing alleging the course was nothing but generic real estate information anyone can easily find on the Internet.
Trump, however, lit into the judge handling the cases. Trump called him out by name, saying “We have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater”, referring to himself in the third person like he so often does. Then he added the racially charged comment that Judge Gonzalo Curiel is “Mexican”, to which the rowdy crowd let out a collective “Booooo”.
This week, Trump doubled down on the bad call by claiming Judge Curiel has an inherent conflict of interest because of his ethnicity and the fact that he is a member of a Latino lawyers association.
So who is this judge?
For starters, he was born in Indiana, the youngest of four children of a steel workers originally from Mexico. Gonzalo Curiel went on to graduate from Indiana University then earned a law degree. He became a federal prosecutor in San Diego and LA, handling drug cases, including against the Arrellano-Felix cartel.
At one point in his career, Curiel was targeted for assassination by the cartel. Curiel is considered to be one of the most respected cartel prosecutors in the country, having prosecuted more than 300 cases.
In 2006, Curiel was appointed to the San Diego Superior Court by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then in 2012, he was appointed to federal court by President Barack Obama.
Where’s the conflict? Only in Donald Trump’s brain.
Legal experts agree it’s highly unusual and inappropriate for a defendant to publically excoriate a judge handling their case. In this case, however, it’s a presidential candidate doing it, not to get an advantage in court, but instead to create hate and animosity among voters. It’s race baiting at its worst.
The public may have become used to Donald Trump’s over-the-top comments, nicknames for candidates, or casual dismissal of others as “losers”, “light-weights”, or “low energy”, but suggesting a judge is biases based ONLY on his ethnicity is out of line, even for Trump.
We cannot allow this to continue. Trump seems to become more emboldened each time he uses a new method of attack that works. If this sort of racial profiling is not rebuffed immediately, he will surely use it and, inevitably, even worse tactics.
Thursday, FoxNews anchor Megan Kelly, who has a long-running feud with Trump, criticized him for his comments against Judge Curiel. Kelly, a lwyer herself, was interviewing Republican Bob Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, and they agreed Trump has gone too far.
Will Trump change? Most likely not. But what must change is the public’s acceptance and approval of such low brow political attacks.
We have entered a new low in our public discourse, where there seems to be no limit to how low the low road goes. Trump takes it lower each week.
If the public does not hit the brakes, we may all be in for a very rough ride to November.
Hang on.