Washington Post columnist calls Trump "a racist and a bigot"
Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank has had it with Donald Trump.
"Let's not mince words: Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist," he wrote in his most recent column for the Washington Post.
"You get to some point when its not just a bigoted action or a racist action, you don't know what is in the man's heart - of course we don't know what's in the man's hear - but when you establish a pattern like this over a very long period of time. and frankly it's going back a quarter century, I think you need to say and call the man what he is and he is: A racist and he is a bigot," Milbank said on CBSN, CBS News' digital network.
He cited several moments from Trump's campaign, including the line in his announcement speech calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, his claims that Muslims were celebrating the 9/11 attacks, and a recent rally in which he appeared to mock a reporter's disability.
None of these things have hurt Trump's standing atop polls of the 2016 Republican field, however.
"The vast majority of people in America do not accept what Donald Trump is doing," Milbank said on CBSN. "Now am I saying that every Donald Trump supporter is a racist or a bigot? No, of course not."
He said Trump is appealing to "an older, white, less-educated segment of society...people who are feeling very anxious and very angry about the direction the economy has taken and are feeling they're being left behind in America."
Milbank said that he's heard from a lot of Trump supporters who are calling him names in response to the column.
"I guess if I'm going to call names I should expect that to come back at me. I generally disapprove of name-calling but I think you need to call a spade a spade here," he said.