Many top officials in the Republican Party are getting queasy over their presumptive nominee’s recent remarks regarding the judge presiding over his upcoming Trump University fraud trial, with comparisons being drawn between Trump and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
Republicans disavowed Trump’s comments (while still supporting him), which conjured up memories of the 1964 election. At this time, Goldwater turned the African American population away from the GOP. Goldwater openly opposed the Civil Rights Act and also said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” His rhetoric drove Black voters away from the Republican Party and, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the effects are still here today.
“There were a lot of other virtues — and in many ways I hated what happened in Johnson’s second term, but it did define our party for at least African American voters,” he said. “We’ve never been able to get them back.”
