WASHINGTON: Donald Trump's criticism of a Latino judge overseeing a lawsuit involving Trump University shows that the presumptive Republican nominee for president is a racist, a Democratic congressman said today, and he told Trump to take his proposed border wall and "shove it up your ass."
Rep Filemon Vela of Texas said in an open letter that Trump's "ignorant anti-immigrant opinions," border wall rhetoric and continued attacks on the judge "are just plain despicable."
Vela, who represents a district in southern Texas along the US-Mexico border, called Trump a racist, adding, "You can take your border wall and shove it up your ass."
In the Senate, top Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada lobbed a blistering fusillade at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, for failing to denounce Trump's attacks on the federal judge presiding in a lawsuit in which Trump is the defendant.
Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach them secrets of success in real estate, an allegation Trump has denied.
US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is presiding over the San Diego suit, and Trump has said Curiel's Mexican heritage means he cannot ensure a fair trial for Trump, who wants to build a border wall to keep people from illegally entering the United States from Mexico.
Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican-born parents making him, in Trump's words, "a hater of Donald Trump."