Under fire from Republicans, Trump says he’ll stop talking about judge

By Richard Cowan and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would no longer talk about a Mexican-American judge after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the presidential candidate’s criticism of the jurist as textbook racism.

But Trump refused entreaties from party leaders to disavow his charge that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was showing bias because of his Mexican heritage and should recuse himself from a lawsuit alleging fraud at Trump’s defunct Trump University real estate training school.

In a lengthy statement, Trump said his previous remarks about Curiel had been misconstrued.

“I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, 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,” the presumptive Republican nominee said.

But he added: “While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November. I do not intend to comment on this matter any further.”

Trump acted after Ryan, the country’s top elected Republican, blasted Trump’s comments, which have threatened to disrupt Republicans’ already rocky efforts to unite behind the candidate.

“I regret those comments that he made. Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed,” Ryan told reporters.

But Ryan, who endorsed Trump last week after initial misgivings, said he still supported his candidacy, saying Trump would be preferable to Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee.

Behind the scenes, Trump has been pressured from friends and family to back down, fearful of the damage that may be done to his prospects in the Nov. 8 election, a source close to the Trump campaign said.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a potential Trump vice presidential running mate, was spotted at Trump Tower in New York before Trump’s statement was issued. Christie earlier in the day defended Trump as “not a racist.”

“Some of his friends and family have talked to him and asked him to drop it and so far he won’t do it,” the source said, speaking before Trump’s statement was issued. “Everybody is mystified about why he would keep doing it.”

Whether Trump will stick to his pledge will soon be known. He has a 9 p.m. EDT news conference scheduled to celebrate expected victories in California and other states voting on Tuesday.

HIGH ANXIETY

Ryan’s emphatic rejection of Trump’s comments showed anxiety among party leaders about their ability to hang on to control of the U.S. Congress in the Nov. 8 election if voters trounce Trump and also punish Republicans lower down on the ticket.

Ryan’s counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Trump should stop attacking minority groups.

“My advice to our nominee is to start talking about the issues that the American people care about, and to start doing it now,” the Senate Republican leader told reporters.

“In addition to that, it’s time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message.”

Senator Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican who said back in March he would support whoever turned out to be the Republican nominee, said on Tuesday he could not support Trump because he did not have the “temperament necessary” for the White House.

Kirk condemned Trump’s comments on Curiel as “dead wrong” and “un-American.” Kirk is seeking re-election in November.

During the Republican primary campaigns, in which Trump vanquished 16 opponents with a stream of insults to rivals and inflammatory comments about Muslims, immigrants and women, establishment Republicans squirmed over the prospect of the former reality television host becoming their standard-bearer.

But many, seeing no alternative, have reconciled themselves to a Trump run for the White House.

‘UNFAIR POSITION’

Trump’s continuing practice of making explosive remarks about racial, religious and gender issues is making Republicans, including those who have embraced him, uncomfortable.

“Trump just needs to throw everybody a lifeline here and back off what he said,” Republican strategist Ryan Williams said. “He’s put his supporters in a very unfair position because they can’t defend what he said but they don’t want to undermine his candidacy.”

Williams noted that Trump had been able to put behind him controversies in the early stages of the Republican primary contest, such as when he called some Mexican immigrants rapists and urged a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.

The situation with the judge is different, Williams said. “He’s not been able to put this behind him. The traditional Trump strategy of simply doubling down and punching his way through a controversy doesn’t seem to be working this time around.”

With greater scrutiny of Trump now that he is set to formally win the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s July convention in Cleveland, there are concerns about the party’s ability to maintain control of the House of Representatives and Senate.

“Trump’s continuing missteps, punctuated by his outrageous and indefensible comments about Judge Curiel, make that goal much more difficult to achieve,” said Lanhee Chen, a senior adviser to former presidential candidate Marco Rubio and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)