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McConnell: Ignore Trump’s Racism Because ‘The Party Of Lincoln Wants To Win The White House’

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thrice refused to label Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s statement that a federal judge cannot decide a case impartially because the judge is Mexican American a “racist statement.”

Then, when confronted with a conservative columnist’s harsh words for GOP’s leaders rallying around Donald Trump — “the Party of Lincoln intends to circle the wagons around a racist. Damn them for that.” — McConnell responded by clarifying where his own priorities lie. “I think the party of Lincoln wants to win the White House,” McConnell said.

McConnell, who, along with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is one of the two highest-ranking elected officials in the GOP, explained that he was backing the real estate mogul’s presidential campaign because it was better to have an overt racist in the White House than to have Hillary Clinton, who will “continue basically the Obama administration for another four years.”

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When host Chuck Todd asked McConnell if he could work with Clinton should she be elected president, the GOP leader replied that “I would rather be working with Donald Trump,” in large part because “I know he’s going to appoint the right kind of person to the Supreme Court.”

Last month, Trump released a list of 11 names of potential nominees to the Supreme Court in a Trump administration. All the names on the list were white.