Elizabeth Warren ACS Convention FULL Speech SLAMS "THIN SKINNED RACIST BULLY" Donald Trump

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• published: 10 Jun 2016
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren escalated her attacks on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, and tied Mr. Trump’s inflammatory comments about a federal judge to what she calls the Republican Party’s obstructionism on judicial appointments. In a speech she plans to deliver Thursday night, the Massachusetts Democrat and potential vice presidential pick sharply chastises Mr. Trump for questioning the capabilities of Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing lawsuits against Trump University, because of his Mexican heritage. “Judge Curiel is one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country,” Ms. Warren will say, according to excerpts released ahead of the speech at the American Constitution Society. “Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself.” spokeswoman for Mr. Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump in a statement this week said his remarks had been “misconstrued,” but did not apologize for them. In her speech, Ms. Warren also sought to undermine top congressional Republicans’ efforts to distance themselves from Mr. Trump’s comments on the judge without retracting their endorsement of Mr. Trump as the party’s standard-bearer. Both House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky. ) have continued to support Mr. Trump, though Mr. Ryan called the judge comments “racist” this week and Mr. McConnell said he doesn’t agree with them. In the speech, Ms. Warren says Mr. Trump’s criticism of the judge was in line with how Republicans have approached the judicial branch under President Barack Obama. Democrats have criticized Republicans for slow-walking the confirmation of judicial nominees since the GOP gained control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections. “Trump isn’t a different kind of candidate. He’s a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate,” Ms. Warren said in her remarks. “Exactly the kind of candidate you’d expect from a Republican Party whose ‘script’ for years has been to execute a full-scale assault on the integrity of our courts.” Senate Republicans said they have been steadily approving judicial nominees. Republicans said they have been steadily approving nominees and Mr. McConnell noted that he has brought judicial nominees to the Senate floor opposed by many Republicans. “We’ve continued to process judicial nominees and we’ve done so even when a majority of the Republican conference did not support the nominee,” Mr. McConnell said in an exchange with Ms. Warren on the Senate floor this week, noting that Democrats do not get to set the chamber’s schedule. “The minority is not going to dictate to the majority when and how we do so,” he said. Both sides wield statistics in the fight over judicial nominees. Republicans note that over the course of Mr. Obama’s presidency so far — which includes six years of a Democratic-controlled Senate — 327 of the president’s judicial nominees were confirmed, compared to 304 nominees confirmed at the same point in President George W. Bush’s presidency. Democrats, meanwhile, counter that the Senate has only confirmed 20 judicial nominees since Republicans took over control of the chamber last January. In contrast, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed 68 judicial nominees during the final two years of Mr. Bush’s time in office Ms. Warren and other Democrats have called on Republicans for weeks to confirm more judicial nominees and most prominently, to consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, whom the president tapped in March to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Republicans have said it should be left to the next president to choose Mr. Scalia’s replacement. “Paul Ryan condemned Trump’s campaign for its attacks on Judge Curiel’s integrity. Great. Where’s Paul Ryan’s condemnation of the blockade, the intimidation, the smears and the slime against the integrity of qualified judicial nominees and Judge Garland?” Ms. Warren asked. “Elizabeth Warren’s vice president nomination audition so far is questionable at best, but props for effort,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan. Ms. Warren has been frequently mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Ms. Clinton. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Tuesday said a presidential ticket with two women would be “fabulous,” but said Mrs. Clinton should select whomever she is most comfortable with to be her partner.