Story highlights
- Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump over his remarks about a federal judge
- She says he's trying to distract attention away from a lawsuit
Lynwood, California (CNN)Hillary Clinton escalated her attacks Monday against Donald Trump over his comments suggesting a federal judge is biased against him because of his Mexican heritage.
"You know, just yesterday he said, 'Well because of all the negative things he has said about American Muslims, he doesn't know an American Muslim judge could fairly preside over a case,'" Clinton told a lunchtime crowd near Los Angeles.
"I'm waiting for him to say because of all the bigoted things he has said about women that a woman judge couldn't preside," she added. "By the time he's finished, nobody's going to be left in this country that he is going to have exempted from insults."
Trump has said that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, in the Southern District of California, shouldn't preside over the lawsuit against Trump University because Curiel is of Mexican heritage.
"He's proud of his heritage. I respect him for that," Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper last week. "He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico."
Clinton said Trump is using the attacks against Curiel as a distraction away from the lawsuit.
"He is as American as I am and he is as American as Donald Trump is," Clinton said of Curiel.
The judge, Clinton said, "drew a case, a case brought against Trump University which has, which has taken advantage of hard working people and is called a fraudulent enterprise even by the people who work there."
"So Trump doesn't want you to pay attention to what this case is revealing so he is attacking the judge and saying outrageously that the judge, who is of Mexican heritage, cannot serve fairly over his case," she added.
Clinton is campaigning throughout the Los Angeles area Monday, one day ahead of the primaries in California, New Jersey and several other states and when she is expected to win the delegates to make her the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
