Donald Trump now argues that the judge presiding over civil lawsuits against Trump University should be disqualified based on his ancestry, telling The Wall Street Journal Thursday that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has "an absolute conflict" in presiding over the litigation since he is "of Mexican heritage" and a member of the La Raza Lawyers Association, a nonprofit that supports Latino lawyers.
The presumptive Republican nominee has previously made rude comments about Mexican immigrants and vowed to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and he told The Journal that Curiel's background must be mentioned because "I'm building a wall. It's an inherent conflict of interest." Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents, and Trump has brought up his heritage before during rallies; he's also called him a "hater of Donald Trump" and a "total disgrace."
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