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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Donald Truump revelas bombastic instability on a daily basis

Even an obsessed blogger like me who blasts Donald Trump nearly twie a day is having a tough time to stay ahead of all the Trumponian instabilities.  The man is dangerous and not qualified to lead, plus, every indication is that his behavior is decompensating. In other words, he's getting worse.

In any given 24 hour news cycle, Donald Trump tells the media so many  lies it's tragically impossible to keep the truth going, because the next lie is an incredulous surprise.  

Not only are the impending lies incredulous, but they're too unbelievalbe to conceptualize a coherent response. For example, "Judge who ruled to open Trump University files is Mexican", lies Donald Trump.  

Well, here's a picture of the judge Donald Trump wrongly attacked:
Judge Gonzalo Curiel

Born in Indiana


Gonzalo Paul Curiel is a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
Born: 1953, United States of America
Education: Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Indiana University Bloomington


With Trump attack on 'Mexican' judge, has he hit a new low?
By Dean Obeidallah
 a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM's weekly program "The Dean Obeidallah Show," a columnist for The Daily Beast and editor of the politics blog The Dean's Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TheDeansreport.  

(CNN) Has Donald Trump reached an alarming new low? (I submit he started his low when he was held accountable by Megyn Kelly:

"Megyn Kelly to Donald Trump: 'You've called women you don't like fat pigs, slobs – and disgusting animals.'"

On Friday, during his campaign rally in San Diego, Trump ripped into federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel who is presiding over one of the two class action lawsuits pending against Trump University and Trump, personally, for allegedly defrauding thousands of people out of money in connection with the now defunct school.

Trump dedicated an incredible 12 minutes of his campaign speech to slam Curiel. 

First, Trump demanded the judge recuse himself because he was a "hater" who had been nominated by President Obama. Then, only a short time after the crowd had been chanting "build that wall," Trump told his rabid fans that Curiel was a "Mexican." But then Trump added, "I think that's fine." (For those who care about actual facts, Curiel is not Mexican; he was born in Indiana.)

If Curiel's Latino heritage was "fine," then why did Trump bring it up at all? Simple: Trump was telling his supporters that Curiel is not one of us, rather he's a "Mexican." He's an other. This has been a central theme in Trump's divisive presidential campaign. After all, Trump kicked off his campaign last year claiming -- despite having no factual support -- that Mexico was sending "rapists" and people who are "bringing drugs" to our country.
Republican politicians slamming federal judges is nothing new. 


We have seen it time and time again with conservatives attacking "judicial activism," such as when Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee went ballistic over the U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. 

And to be fair, Democrats like President Obama have been publicly critical of the Republicans, who until recently held a majority on the Supreme Court, and struck down portions of the Voting Rights Act in 2013.

But the difference is that both the Republicans and Democrats who have publicly criticized judges in the past have been focused on constitutional issues that impact countless Americans. 

That's not what Trump is talking about here. 

Rather, Trump is only concerned how this lawsuit will impact one, person, Donald J. Trump.

To be clear, Trump is facing personal liability in this case as well as the other two cases involving Trump University, one in New York and another in California. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against Trump personally and the school on behalf of 5,000 former students who had allegedly been defrauded. Schneiderman called Trump 

University "a bait and switch scheme" and noted that Trump could personally face millions in civil penalties under New York law. A separate federal class action lawsuit not connected to Curiel is also still pending in California. 

It alleges that Trump engaged in racketeering in violation of the RICO statute.

If Curiel were truly biased, Trump would have a point. 

But that's simply not the case. Curiel is not some Democratic activist nominated by President Obama in 2011 to the federal bench as payback for his years of political service. Rather Curiel was first appointed in 2006 to the California Superior Court by then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Before that, Curiel served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor and was even targeted by a Mexican drug cartel in the 1990s for assassination after his efforts to extradite two drug kingpins from Mexico. And when Curiel was finally confirmed as a federal judge by the U.S. Senate in 2012, it was by way of a voice vote with no recorded Republican opposition. Apparently Trump has not figured out how to use Google or perhaps more likely, he could not care less about the facts.

Even Trump's claim on Friday that Curiel has "given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative" is undermined by the facts. Just a few weeks ago, Curiel agreed to Trump's request to delay the trial in this case from this summer, as originally scheduled, to after the election. As Curiel stated in making this ruling in Trump's favor and over the plaintiffs' objections, he feared the "media frenzy" could make it impossible for the jury to be unbiased.

But still that ruling was not enough for Trump. 

In Trump's view, this "Mexican" judge still needed to be investigated, without offering any specific facts as to why.

Trump concluded his tirade about Curiel by noting how much he relished the idea of returning to the stand for trial after being elected President.

But he picked back up on Memorial Day by continuing his attacks on the judge in a series of tweets, calling him "unfair" and "Totally biased-hates Trump." (Odd to see the GOP nominee using Memorial Day to attack a judge in a personal lawsuit.)

Hopefully, this case will finally go to trial in November -- like Trump wanted -- after six long years in the court system. 

It will give the plaintiffs, which include senior citizens who have made claims under California state law for "financial elder abuse," a chance to make their case and if successful to be reimbursed for their losses. And here's hoping that when that trial takes place, Trump is simply known as the former GOP nominee, not the President-elect.

Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM's weekly program "The Dean Obeidallah Show," a columnist for The Daily Beast and editor of the politics blog The Dean's Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TheDeansreport. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

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