US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has rejected criticism - including from his own party - of his allegations of bias against a Hispanic judge, insisting his concerns are valid.
"All I want to do is figure out why I'm being treated unfairly by a judge. And a lot of people agree with it," Trump said on Fox News on Monday.
Trump has been on the defensive since his comments last week about Mexican-American US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University, the New York businessman's defunct real estate school.
He has suggested that Curiel's heritage is influencing his opinion about the case because of Trump's campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the November 8 presidential election, has pledged to seal the US-Mexico border with a wall, and has said Mexico is sending rapists and drug dealers to the United States.
Trump has regularly stirred up controversy on the campaign trail and has frequently dismayed Republican establishment leaders. His view of an ethnically biased judiciary has drawn a fresh wave of criticism, including concern in his own party.He doubled down on Sunday when asked if - by the same token - he believed a Muslim judge would be biased against him based on Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. "It's possible. Yes," Trump said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Republican leaders including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have distanced themselves from Trump's comments, saying they are worried the tone of his presidential campaign could enrage Latinos, who are a growing US voting bloc.
A former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Ohio Governor John Kasich, called on Trump to apologise to Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents.
SOURCE: DAILYTELEGRAPH
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