Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) seemed to miss the memo dictated by presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump himself to double down on attacking a judge in a class action lawsuit over Trump University — and the reporters who ask about it.
The Trump surrogate appeared on CNN Monday and called the controversy a “distraction” and said it was time to move on. His appearance came shortly after reports emerged that Trump told his surrogates in a wide-ranging conference call on Monday to “go at” the “racist” reporters covering his attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. In the same call, the businessman also reversed instructions distributed Sunday to his surrogates by one of his own staffers asking that they not discuss the Trump University lawsuit.
Trump reportedly told the surrogates in the call to throw the memo the staffer sent “the hell out.”
Collins told CNN host Wolf Blitzer that he was not on the conference call and seemed to speak about Trump University under the conditions set by the staffer’s memo.
“This has been somewhat of a distraction as we’re going to move forward. I think we need to put this behind us, but remember actions speak louder than words,” Collins said. “And Donald Trump with 50 years in the private sector has shown race, religion and gender do not influence him when it comes to hiring the brightest in his organization. The way he treats people — Donald Trump is not a racist.”
When Blitzer asked Collins if he thought Trump’s attack was racist, Collins said that he doesn’t “view them in the racist context” because he doesn’t believe Trump is racist.
