Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent criticism of Donald Trump echoes a principled stand he made as a young student more than 50 years ago: He voted against the nominee of his party.
In 1964, a young McConnell voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson instead of Republican Barry Goldwater over the latter’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act.
Goldwater’s opposition to the civil rights bill pushed African Americans out of the party. And on Tuesday, at an event in Washington to promote his memoir, McConnell openly worried that Trump was turning Hispanic voters away from the party, most recently because of his comments about a federal judge of Mexican heritage.
“It’s stupid to do that,” McConnell said, adding that Trump should apologize for the suggestion that Judge Gonzalo Curiel couldn’t be impartial to Trump in a civil fraud case involving his now-defunct real-estate training program, Trump University.
Yet McConnell, who’s represented Kentucky since 1984, continues to embrace Trump as the Republican presidential candidate and has not told Republicans to do the modern equivalent of what he did once: vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in protest.
I don’t believe Mitch McConnell thinks it’s good to have the Clintons back in the White House.
Scott Jennings, Republican political consultant
“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican political consultant in Kentucky who’s worked for McConnell and former President George W. Bush.
Jennings said there’s no Republican more loyal to the party than McConnell.
“I don’t believe Mitch McConnell thinks it’s good to have the Clintons back in the White House,” he said.
McConnell’s office said Wednesday he had nothing to add to his Tuesday evening comments.
In 1964, McConnell was an intern in the office of Kentucky Republican Sen. John Sherman Cooper, whose vote helped break a filibuster on the Civil Rights Act.
Goldwater, meanwhile, opposed the bill and lost to Johnson in a landslide that year. He also lost McConnell.
“I was a big Goldwater enthusiast,” McConnell said Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank in Washington. “But I was so angry with him over his decision to oppose the civil rights bill of ’64. Subsequently, I didn’t feel very good about that vote, because almost everything else about Goldwater I liked.”
“It was a protest vote,” he said.
I was a big Goldwater enthusiast. But I was so angry with him over his decision to oppose the civil rights bill of ’64.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Trump has said that Curiel was incapable of being impartial in Trump’s case because as a presidential candidate, Trump has proposed to build a wall at the Mexican border to curb illegal immigration. Although Curiel’s parents are from Mexico, Curiel was born in Indiana and is known for his tough approach to Mexican drug cartels.
“I’m building a wall,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal last week. “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
Trump has suggested that Muslim judges also might not give him a fair trial because of his proposal to ban them, temporarily, from entering the United States.
Trump has also drawn the wrath of Republican leaders for his criticism of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation’s only Latina governor.
“I worry about these gratuitous shots at a variety of Americans,” McConnell said Tuesday. “Basically, we’re writing off Hispanic Americans.”
When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, about 87 percent of the voting population was white. In 2016, only 70 percent will be.
With Goldwater’s lingering effect in mind, McConnell and many other Republicans are concerned about any kind of rhetoric that drives voters away from the Republican Party, Jennings said.
“Republicans have never really recovered with African Americans,” Jennings said.
They have plenty of reason to worry: The country’s demographics have changed, and Republicans have struggled to win minority voters.
When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, about 87 percent of the voting population was white. In 2016, only 70 percent will be.
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In 2004, Bush won 44 percent of the Latino vote. Bush supported a comprehensive immigration overhaul with a path to citizenship, though it never made it to his desk. In 2012, Mitt Romney, who had urged immigrants in the country illegally to “self-deport,” won only 27 percent of the Latino vote.
44 Percent of Latino votes won by George W. Bush in 2004
27 Percent of Latino votes won by Mitt Romney in 2012
In a statement on Tuesday following criticism from McConnell and other prominent Republicans, Trump softened his stance on Curiel, though he did not apologize.
“I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial,” Trump said, “but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.”
On Tuesday, McConnell said Trump should apologize and “get on script.”
“It’s time for him to look like a serious candidate for president,” McConnell said. “This could be a winnable race.”
Curtis Tate: 202-383-6018, @tatecurtis