Mitch McConnell believes it is quite possible that Donald Trump’s policy proposals and tone toward Latino voters could endanger the Republican Party for decades with one of the fastest growing groups in America.
In a Thursday interview, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked McConnell if he thought it was possible that Trump would alienate Latino voters the way Barry Goldwater alienated African-Americans from the party for decades.
“I do. I do, and I think that the attacks that he’s routinely engaged in, for example, going after Susana Martinez–the Republican Governor of New Mexico, the chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, I think that was a big mistake. What he ought to be doing now is trying to unify the party,” McConnell said in the interview.
In his newly released memoir, McConnell writes that that even he voted for Lyndon Johnson during the 1964 election because he was so turned off by Goldwater’s policy on civil rights.
McConnell told CNN that Goldwater’s fervent attacks against the 1964 Civil Rights Act redefined the GOP’s standing with black voters for decades.
“It did define our party, for at least African-American voters, and it still does today,” McConnell told CNN.
