After presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump attacked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel last week, calling him a Mexican although he was born in Indiana and saying he can't rule fairly because of his race, Republicans started to panic.
On Sunday Trump ally Newt Gingrich finally stepped away from towing the campaign line by refusing to defend Trump's comments.
"I think it's inexcusable," Gingrich said.
Monday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham urged fellow Republicans who endorsed Trump to rescind their endorsements.
“If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it,” Graham told The New York Times.
Yesterday, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk rescinded his endorsement.
Full Sen Kirk (R-IL) stmt saying he does not support Donald Trump: pic.twitter.com/rqanZU1L6A
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) June 7, 2016
Speaker Paul Ryan classified Trump's attack on Curiel as a "racist comment" and said he wasn't going to "even try" to defend it.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake stated Trump's attacks on Curiel could force a challenge at the RNC convention in July.
"Where there's no talk of a convention challenge or anything else, this might spur it," Flake said.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who has been sucking up to Trump since he announced his candidacy last summer, indignantly demanded Paul Ryan refuse to keep his endorsement of Trump unless an apology is made. In fact, he demanded Ryan prove he isn't a bigot by holding Trump accountable.
"When is there going to be a Republican in DC that makes Donald Trump Pay a Price?" Scarborough asked, ignoring his responsibility for failing to hold Trump accountable for the vast majority of previous transgressions.
Here's the thing, a number of conservatives loudly sounded the alarm about Trump's behavior months, even years ago. What we're seeing now is exactly what the Against Trump coalition, Liz Mair, Rick Wilson and many others warned about. They were ignored, belittled, attacked and destroyed for doing so and now, here we are.
Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and many are pretending everything he's doing now to lose in November is somehow new and that his outlandish demeanor only came to be over the weekend.
Trump's attack on Curiel, like his other unpresidential behavior, isn't new. Flashback to February:
I flagged the Trump Judge comments in February.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 7, 2016
No one picked up. https://t.co/yeqUrCHvoj
Apparently mocking POWs, disabled reporters, failing to disavow the likes of David Duke, viciously attacking reporters for quoting his words during questioning, proliferating conspiracy theories about Ted Cruz' father being involved in the JFK assassination, etc. weren't enough to warrant this type of response from Republicans early on when Trump could have been stopped.
The time to do something about Trump was during the primary. Hoping Trump will genuinely change now is naive. Republicans made their bed and now they must lie in it.
I have no patience for the GOP leadership who sat on their thumbs rather than support Rubio or Cruz when it mattered b/c of hurt feelings.
— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) June 7, 2016
I'll leave you with this:
1. Trump does racist thing.
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) June 8, 2016
2. Republicans panic.
3. Trump reads bad TelePrompTer speech.
4. Republicans golfclap.
5. Repeat, 5 months.