Politics

George Will Quits Being Republican Over Trump’s Judge Comments

Fox News Sunday screengrab/http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/06/26/columnist_george_will_leaves_gop_over_trump_s_mexican_judge_comment.html

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Blake Neff Reporter
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Conservative writer George Will is no longer a Republican, and he says it’s all Paul Ryan’s fault.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Will said the last straw for him was that Ryan, the Speaker of the House, was willing to endorse Trump even after his statements attacking judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling the Trump University case. Trump has suggested Curiel is biased against him because he has Mexican heritage.

“After Trump went after the ‘Mexican’ judge from northern Indiana, then Paul Ryan endorsed him, I decided that in fact this was not my party anymore,” Will said during his appearance. “I changed my registration to unaffiliated 23 days ago.”

Will compared his defection to Ronald Reagan’s decision to leave the Democratic Party, saying that it was Republicans who had changed, not him.

“I left [the party] for the same reason I joined it in 1964, when I voted for Barry Goldwater,” he said. “I joined it because I was a conservative, and I leave it for the same reason: I’m a conservative,.”

Will first said he was leaving the Republican Party Friday, during a Federalist Society luncheon, but his comments Sunday add further context to his decision. Will has been heavily critical of Trump throughout the nomination process, and he has even written that it would be advantageous for Trump to lose in a 50-state landslide.

Trump himself said Sunday morning that Will would not be missed via Twitter:

Will responded on “Fox News Sunday” by calling Trump clueless on every topic.

“He has an advantage on me, because he can say everything he knows about any subject in 140 characters and I can’t,” he said.

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