Marco Rubio thinks Donald Trump's verbal attacks on a Mexican-American judge are wrong and reflect poorly on the Republican party.
Speaking with WFTV in Orlando, the Florida senator said he will still support Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on the November ballot. But he has a real problem with Trump's
continued insistence that a judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University should be removed from the case because of his ethnicity.
"I think it's wrong, he needs to stop saying it," Rubio said. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel is in charge of the case, being heard in San Diego.
"That man is an American, born in the United States. Beyond it, even if he hadn't been, he's a judge who has earned that position, and in the end should be treated with the same level of respect as any other officer of the court," Rubio said.
"I don't think it reflects well on the Republican Party. I don't think it reflects well on us as a nation. There shouldn't be any sort of ethnicity, religious, or racial test for what kind of judges should hear what kind of cases. It's wrong and I hope he stops."
Rubio, whose presidential bid ended in March, added that he doesn't "defend what [Trump] says. And all I can tell you is I ran for president and I warned this was what was going to happen. I consistently said that if he came the nominee, we would face these sorts of difficult choices we now have."
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