--- title: Mitch McConnell to Donald Trump: Stop Attacking Minorities description: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined his fellow Republican leaders in criticizing presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-07T19:16:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:26:57.397Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mitch McConnell: It's Time for Trump to Stop Attacking Minority Groups og:description: “My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about" og:url: https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cafab40042d6a21/698896d22dce0165339e9610/mitch-mcconnell-trump-minorities.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks to the media after a weekly Senate Republican luncheon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mitch McConnell: It's Time for Trump to Stop Attacking Minority Groups twitter:description: “My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cafab40042d6a21/698896d22dce0165339e9610/mitch-mcconnell-trump-minorities.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mitch McConnell: It's Time for Donald Trump to Stop Attacking Minority Groups by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 7, 2016 7:16 PM CUT  Mitch McConnell talks to the media after a weekly Senate Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 7, 2016. Mitch McConnell talks to the media after a weekly Senate Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 7, 2016.Yuri Gripas—Reuters by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 7, 2016 7:16 PM CUT Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined his fellow Republican leaders in criticizing presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, saying that the candidate [needs to stop attacking various minority groups](https://twitter.com/ReutersPolitics/status/740247706640240640 "undefined"). “My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about, and to start doing it now,” McConnell said in a Capitol Hill press conference, according to MSNBC. Trump has come under fire from across the political spectrum for saying that the judge presiding over the Trump University case is biased because of his Mexican ancestry. McConnell went on to say that it’s time for Trump to stop attacking the people he’s “competed with” and minority groups, calling the election “eminently winnable.” He called for Trump to get “on message.” > [](https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/740248381532962816) McConnell’s comments came just hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan [called Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel “indefensible.”](http://time.com/4359768/paul-ryan-donald-trump-judge-curiel-racism/?xid=tcoshare "undefined") “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/"},"headline":"Mitch McConnell: It's Time for Donald Trump to Stop Attacking Minority Groups","datePublished":"2016-06-07T19:16:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:26:57.397Z","description":"“My advice to our nominee would be to start talking about the issues that the American people care about\"","url":"https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cafab40042d6a21/698896d22dce0165339e9610/mitch-mcconnell-trump-minorities.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cafab40042d6a21/698896d22dce0165339e9610/mitch-mcconnell-trump-minorities.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks to the media after a weekly Senate Republican luncheon","caption":"Mitch McConnell talks to the media after a weekly Senate Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 7, 2016.","creditText":"Yuri Gripas—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4360328/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-minority-groups/","name":"Mitch McConnell: It's Time for Donald Trump to Stop Attacking Minority Groups"}}]}] ```