Donald Trump is in the midst of waging an intimidation campaign even his GOP supporters can’t get behind. His target is the federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over fraud allegations against Trump University. Trump claims Judge Curiel’s Mexican heritage makes him inherently biased against him, because of his plans to build a wall on the Mexican border.
Judge Vaughn Walker joins the show to discuss the affront Trump’s comments pose to judicial independence. Walker is personally familiar with this kind of bigotry: After presiding over same-sex marriage litigation in California in 2010, he was the subject of attacks claiming he was unfit to judge the case because he himself is gay.
Also this week, Hillary Clinton has officially secured enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s nominee. Former Martin O’Malley deputy campaign manager Lis Smith stops in to talk about the coming race against Donald Trump, and the future of Bernie Sanders’s supporter base.
Further reading:
- The story behind the effort to disqualify Vaughn Walker from judging the California gay marriage case, by Dahlia Lithwick for Slate
- How Trump University is a devastating metaphor for the Trump campaign, by Brian Beutler for the New Republic