http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-house-republicans-racism-224000 Trump 'racism' frenzy engulfs Hill Republicans
This is not the debate elected Republicans wanted to have.
By John Bresnahan, Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim
06/07/16 06:00 PM EDT
Paul Ryan wanted to talk about fighting poverty. What he got instead, at the kickoff of his much-touted policy agenda on Tuesday, was a barrage of questions about whether Donald Trump is a racist — and whether the House speaker regretted having endorsed the business mogul.
It was that kind of day for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The furor surrounding Trump's accusations that a federal judge may be biased against him because of his Mexican roots swamped everything. House members and senators spent the day fielding questions about Trump’s remarks — and struggling to square their support for the presumptive nominee with rhetoric seen as increasingly toxic to their own chances of political survival this fall. Or, in the case of endangered Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), ditching Trump altogether.
By the end of the day, Trump had issued a new statement blaming the media for his problems, without apologizing to the Indiana-born federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over lawsuits against Trump University. Trump then declared he was done commenting on the matter.
But the damage was already done.
Kirk's statement could hardly have been more pointed had it been written by a Democrat.
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