Paul Ryan wanted to talk about fighting poverty. What he got instead, at the kickoff of his much-touted policy agenda on Tuesday, was a barrage of questions about whether Donald Trump is a racist — and whether the House speaker regretted having endorsed the business mogul.
It was that kind of day for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The furor surrounding Trump's accusations that a federal judge may be biased against him because of his Mexican roots swamped everything. House members and senators spent the day fielding questions about Trump’s remarks — and struggling to square their support for the presumptive nominee with rhetoric seen as increasingly toxic to their own chances of political survival this fall. Or, in the case of endangered Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), ditching Trump altogether.
By the end of the day, Trump had issued a new statement blaming the media for his problems, without apologizing to the Indiana-born federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over lawsuits against Trump University. Trump then declared he was done commenting on the matter.
But the damage was already done.
Kirk's statement could hardly have been more pointed had it been written by a Democrat.
"I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers — not building walls. That's why I find Donald Trump's belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American," the first-term senator said. "After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world."
Kirk later told reporters that he would write in former Gen. David Petraeus as his choice for president.
It was a stunning repudiation of the party's nominee by a sitting senator, and one that shows just how much of a liability some in the GOP believe Trump has become. These denizens of the "Republican establishment" were raised on the idea of party unity and loyalty: You back your guy no matter what. But Trump is straining that loyalty to the breaking point for many Republicans, and beyond for some.
Most Republicans stuck to the line Ryan used — that what Trump said about Curiel is racist and he should apologize.
"Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment," Ryan said during a news conference to unveil the new Republican anti-poverty plan. "If you say something that's wrong, I think the mature and responsible thing is to acknowledge it."
Ryan's aides were clearly showing the strain of the Trump frenzy and blamed the media for the controversy, not Trump. "Way to go reporters: first question at a poverty forum: Trump. Slow clap," AshLee Strong, Ryan's spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter.
But then a Trump surrogate bizarrely accused Ryan of being a racist himself, a perfect example of the circus that surrounds the Republican nominee.
“Speaker Ryan has apparently switched positions and is now supporting identity politics, which is racist. I mean, I am astonished, astonished,” said Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan White House official, during an appearance on CNN. “I am accusing anybody, anybody, who believes in identity politics, which he apparently now does, of playing the race card. The Republican establishment is playing this. Sen. [Mitch] McConnell is playing this. These people have run and hid and borrowed the Democratic agenda of playing the race card."
Some Republicans, including Ryan, employed the "Trump is still better than Hillary Clinton" defense. Several asserted that Trump "isn't racist in his heart" line or variations on that theme. Still others refused to comment or grew angry when pressed to comment on the GOP presidential hopeful.
McConnell was asked every which way about Trump’s comments at his weekly Q&A with reporters, as his leadership team tried in vain to talk about national security and a defense bill pending on the Senate floor. The Kentucky Republican faced not a single question about his plans to pass annual spending bills or to overhaul the Senate and make it a better-functioning body.
“You know, I was asked over the course of the last week on numerous occasions to express myself on utterances of the nominee. And I have done that,” McConnell said in response to the first question, repeating himself several times and chiding reporters that they haven’t been “paying attention.”
Asked about Trump a fourth time, McConnell conceded he is “worried” about alienating Latino voters this year, as Barry Goldwater did with black voters a half-century ago, and he urged Trump to “get on message.” As in immediately.
“There are a lot of issues that we ought to be talking about and our nominee ought to be talking about,” McConnell said. “The condition of the economy, the implementation of Obamacare. We have plenty of issues. My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about and to start doing it now.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who was walking to the Senate floor to give a speech on national security and recent devastating floods in Texas, would offer nothing new about Trump, who he called “terrific” six months ago and a “pathological liar” in May.
“I don’t have anything else to say about Donald Trump,” Cruz said when asked if he will endorse the mogul. Cruz then repeated himself, in case it wasn't clear the first time. "I don’t have anything else to say about Donald Trump."
Similarly, Cruz's Texas colleague said he's had it with Trump talk — even though he’s one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress and Election Day is still five months away.
“I’m not going to talk about Trump. Like I said, you guys can talk about it. Doesn’t mean I have to,” Majority Whip John Cornyn declared.
Then there was Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who's also facing a grueling reelection battle. Eager to talk policy, he invited reporters to an informal session to discuss his proposal in a defense bill that would mandate background checks for those who work with children in Pentagon-operated schools — a push meant to protect kids from potential sexual abuse.
After a couple of questions about the idea, the conversation quickly pivoted to Trump. Toomey was asked about Trump’s comments on Curiel, whether the senator could still support the presumptive nominee, and whether Trump would have an impact on his own race. One reporter noted that Toomey seemed frustrated by all the Trump-related questions.
“Well, we’ve spent how much time now talking about the issues that have nothing to do with the work that I’ve done in the Senate, what I’m trying to accomplish in the Senate?” Toomey responded. “So I would rather be focused on how we can make sure that kids go to school in the safest possible environment and we’re talking about other things. That is a little frustrating.”
One Republican strayed from the Ryan-McConnell line with disastrous results.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) went on CNN to discuss Trump and ended up calling President Barack Obama a racist. "You can easily argue the president of the United States is a racist with his policies and rhetoric," Zeldin claimed. Zeldin later added that "my purpose here isn't to just go through the list and call everyone a racist."
When asked later for details on Obama's allegedy racist policies or rhetoric, Zeldin apologized to Obama.
"I abhor racism in any form and it has no place in our country," Zeldin said in a statement. "I was disappointed and disagree with Donald Trump's statement."
Zeldin added: "With that being said, I apologize to anyone who interpreted my comments as calling the president a racist. I am not calling the president a racist.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an unabashed Trump critic, said the issue isn't so much Trump as the future of the GOP. Backing Trump just because he's the Republican nominee doesn't cut it, Graham said.
"There are a lot of people who want to be loyal to the Republican Party, including me," Graham told MSNBC. "But there'll come a point in time where we're gonna have to understand that it's not just about the 2016 race, it's about the future of the party. And I would like to support our nominee; I just can't."
