Republican front-runner Donald Trump called one of the judges involved in the Trump University legal battle “extremely unfair” in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning.
U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel is Hispanic, and Trump claimed “because of the wall and because of everything that’s going on with Mexico…this is a judge who I believe has treated me very, very unfairly.” He added, “This is a case that should have been thrown out a long time ago, in the opinion of many great lawyers.”
On the lawsuits Trump University faces, Trump said he could have settled but “I just don’t choose to do it. It’s not a big deal. It’s a civil case.” He added that 98 percent of participants approved of the course.
Pressed if any participants in the program went on to succeed in real estate, the presidential candidate asserted, “People did succeed” and they will “be witnesses at the trial.”
On Sunday morning, Trump once again found himself answering questions about a controversial retweet from his personal Twitter account.
The parody account, which Gawker has now taken credit for, is quoting Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Did Trump know it was a Mussolini quote when he shared it? “Sure, it’s okay to know it’s Mussolini. Look, Mussolini was Mussolini…it’s a very good quote.”
Pressed if he wanted to be associated with a fascist, Trump replied, "No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes…”
Finally, Trump explained how his biggest endorsement of the 2016 cycle so far, from former campaign rival Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., came about:
“…it was just somebody that I really wanted…I was going to leave a little time go by before I called him. I did not call him, he called me. He saw what was happening. He said, ‘Donald, you have a movement going’… I was very happy. I was getting ready to call him and he called me. And having Chris is a great honor, truly.”
Christie consistently criticized Trump on the campaign trial. However,Trumped dismissed those previous statements, “I heard those comments, and they were made in a rather low-key manner, and they were made in smaller locations, and they never got out very much, so I never really had to go wild.”
“That's called welcome to the wonderful world of politics…he's been a friend of mine, he's been a really good guy, and a good friend of mine for a long time,” he continued.