Trump aide defends bringing up judge’s ‘Mexican’ heritage

Donald Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson on Monday defended the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for calling a California judge overseeing a fraud case against Trump University a “Mexican” and a “hater.”

On Friday, Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments from Trump and called for documents related to the not-defunct university to be unsealed. In an interview on CNN, Pierson pointed to his membership in a Latino lawyers group in California to show he is anti-Trump.

{mosads}”I think what’s really interesting about this particular judge — as Mr. Trump refers to him as a ‘Trump hater’ — is he even mentions on his judicial questionnaire that he was a La Raza Lawyers Association member,” Pierson said.

“This is an organization that has been out there organizing anti-Trump protesters with the Mexican flags. They are pushing it. The signs have been very apparent. And so Mr. Trump is just stating the obvious.”

At a rally earlier this week, Trump said Curiel should not have scheduled a trial for the suit against Trump University in November.

“The trial is going to take place sometime in November. There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily, everybody says it. But I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater,” Trump said.

“The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that’s fine.”

When CNN host Alisyn Camerota pointed out that Curiel was born in the United States, Pierson continued to link the judge with protests taking place outside Tump rallies. She said she doesn’t know if the judge is Mexican but that people need to identify who is protesting and what they are doing.

“Well, it’s because of what we see outside of these rallies, these anti-Trump rallies, these criminal rallies, these criminal protesters out there defacing property and attacking police officers,” Pierson said.

“They’re doing so under the guise of an anti-Trump protest, with their Mexican flags, and La Raza and this judge is connected to that.”