Donald Trump’s Immigrant Comments Too Much Even For Republicans, Chairman Tells Him To Tone It Down
Donald Trump’s comments describing Mexican immigrants as rapists, drug dealers, and thieves is bringing the Republican Party down and alienating a key group of voters.
That’s what the Chairman of the Republican party said when he called Trump for an hour Wednesday night and asked him to tone down his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants.
Chairman Reince Priebus and senior party leaders are worried Trump will damage the Republican Party’s image and its influence with Latino voters.
Republicans have worked hard over the past year to polish their image and broaden their appeal to include the growing Latino vote, and many are afraid Trump’s comments will alienate voters.
Donald Trump has surged to the top of two new 2016 polls http://t.co/zyoARzAGOd pic.twitter.com/8SQUcXDNvM
— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) July 9, 2015
Latinos, however, aren’t the only ones being alienated by Trump’s comments. Donors have also been calling into party headquarters to question Donald’s stance on Mexican immigrants.
Trump’s comments have also been affecting other Republican presidential candidates, and the party is worried his comments could come to represent the party at large.
Jeb Bush was forced to fend off questions about Trump from reporters recently and he tried to focus attention away from the billionaire and toward his own campaign.
The Washington Post first reported the story of the Priebus and Trump phone call and Donald confirmed it, but denied that he was asked to tone down his comments.
Totally false reporting on my call with @Reince Priebus. He called me, ten minutes, said I hit a “nerve", doing well, end!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2015
He called the reporting inaccurate and said the Republican chairman had called to congratulate him, not reprimand him about his comments.
Trump, who is doing well in early poll numbers, doesn’t see his comments as damaging and thinks he can earn the Latino vote. He’ll likely be on stage during the televised Republican presidential debate in about a month.
In an interview with NBC News Wednesday, Trump said he had nothing to apologize for.
Meanwhile, Democrats are enjoying Trump’s comments and are eagerly pointing to them as a reason to avoid the conservative party. A recent video released by the Democrats links Donald’s comments to other Republican candidates, most of whom oppose illegal immigration, but do so quietly.
Hillary Clinton seized on Trump’s comments during an interview and tied him to the other Republican candidates.
Clinton told the Business Insider Trump’s comments make the whole Republican Party look bad.
“They are all in the same general area on immigration. They don’t want to provide a path to citizenship. They range across a spectrum of being either grudgingly welcome or hostile towards immigrants.”
