Attack On Judge Not Racist: Trump

Donald Trump's name is raining in a new storm. He refuses to climb down from his stand in spite of drawing flak for his attack on a U.S. judge, even though the presumptive Republican nominee tries to unite the party before the GOP convention.

The comments and slams against Trump poured in from all sides. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Monday that Trump should apologize for affirming that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American citizen born in Indiana but the son of Mexican immigrants, should not be allowed to judge a lawsuit that involves Trump University.

"Attacking judges based on their race [and/or] religion is another tactic that divides our country. More importantly, it is flat out wrong," Kasich, Trump's former GOP primary rival, tweeted. "Trump should apologize to Judge Curiel [and] try to unite this country," Kasich added.

The Hillary Clinton campaign seemed to be delighted and went berserk over an ad Monday, highlighting the Republican response after Trump talked about Curiel. There was a web video that showed a clip from Trump's interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Friday. Were his comments about the judge "racist," he was asked.

Trump responded that the judge should "recuse himself." "I'm building a wall," Trump said in the Sunday interview. "He's a Mexican."

This was the statement that brought a whiplash from the Republicans.

"I completely disagree with the thinking behind that," House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday, just a day following the endorsement of the Trump candidacy.

"I couldn't disagree more with a statement like that," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated in NBC's "Meet The Press."

"This was racism, plain and simple," said Erick Erickson, a popular conservative talk radio host and Trump critic in a Saturday blog post. "The Party of Lincoln intends to circle the wagons around a racist. Damn them for that."

Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is a well-known Trump supporter called him "inexcusable." "I think this is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made," Gingrich said. "That judge is not a Mexican. He's an American."

That made one man very surprised: Donald Trump.

"I was surprised at Newt," Trump said on "Fox & Friends." "I thought it was inappropriate what he said."