Wall Street Journal
By Reid Epstein
June 10, 2016
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday offered his first public defense against critics who have called his attacks on a federal judge’s Mexican ethnicity racist, by calling himself “the least racist person that you’ve ever seen” at a campaign rally in Richmond, Va.
Though he didn’t mention U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel or the Trump University litigation the judge is overseeing, Mr. Trump rebutted critics like House Speaker Paul Ryan, who have dubbed his assertion that Judge Curiel should be removed from his cases because of his “Mexican heritage” as racist statements and called for him to retract them. Mr. Trump hasn’t offered a retraction.
“And by the way, just so you know, I am the least racist person, the least racist person that you’ve ever seen, the least” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, give me a break. But they’re saying, ‘Is Donald Trump a racist?’ I am the least racist person that you’ve ever looked at, believe me.”
Mr. Trump’s statement came a few minutes after he made an explicit appeal to black and Hispanic voters by citing inflated unemployment data for black youth.
“You know, I have the theme ‘Make America great again.’ And I’ve added a couple of things. I’m adding, ‘Make America great again,’ I’m adding, ‘for everyone.’ Because it’s really going to be for everyone. Not going to be for a group of people, it’s going to be for everyone,” Mr. Trump said. “If you look at what’s going on in this country, African-American youth, to use this as an example, 59% unemployment rate, 59%. You look at what’s going on with Latinos, Hispanics, tremendous unemployment rates.”
In fact, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for blacks aged 16 to 19 was 27.1% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is about double the unemployment rate for white teenagers.
After Mr. Trump made his pitch to lower black and Hispanic unemployment rates, he attacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who has emerged as one of leading Trump critics in the Democratic Party, by calling her “Pocahontas,” a slur against her claimed Native American heritage.
“Pocahontas is not happy,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, Pocahontas, I’m doing such a disservice to Pocahontas. It’s so unfair to Pocahontas. But this Elizabeth Warren, I call her Goofy, she’s one of the worst senators in the entire United States Senate.”
Earlier Friday, Ms. Warren responded to Mr. Trump referring to her as “Pocahontas” on Twitter by suggesting that he delete his account, just as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did when Mr. Trump attacked her on Thursday.
No, seriously -- Delete your account. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/741240449906663424 …
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) 8:28 AM - 10 Jun 2016
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