Reports: RNC Chair Reince Priebus Has Told Trump To Cool It On Judge Attacks

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2014 file photo, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is seen at the RNC winter meeting in Washington. Preibus acknowledges the GOP is “a tale of two parties,” in an inter... FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2014 file photo, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is seen at the RNC winter meeting in Washington. Preibus acknowledges the GOP is “a tale of two parties,” in an interview with the Associated Press. “We’ve got a midterm party that doesn’t lose, and a presidential party that’s having a hard time winning,” he said. But he declined to blame the split on policy, be it immigration or budget gridlock that House Republicans have helped bring about. Instead, he said the party has largely conceded minority and younger voters by not engaging them directly in their communities. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) MORE LESS
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As Republicans continue to squirm under Donald Trump’s latest controversy — this time, claims that a federal judge is biased against the presumptive GOP nom based on the judge’s ethnicity — Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has privately reached out to Trump to tell him to pull back on his attacks on the judge, reports in New York Times and the Washington Post said.

An unnamed Republican source told the Times that Priebus “held discussions” with Trump about the attacks on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over two lawsuits against Trump University.

The Times noted that it was not the first time Priebus had sought to persuade Trump to rein it in, and that “other senior Republicans said there was confusion about whether it was worth approaching any of Mr. Trump’s aides about doing an intervention with him.”

A Washington Post run-down of the continuing fallout over Trump’s verbal assault against the judge also made note of the Priebus conversation, saying he was among the major GOP figures bringing up their concerns.

Trump’s attacks on Curiel began back in February, but have ramped up recently as documents in one of the Trump University cases were unsealed. He has said that Curiel is a “Mexican” and a “hater” who being “hostile” towards Trump because of Trump’s border wall plans.

Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants.

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