GOP leaders react to Trump's comments

Donald Trump is not apologizing, but he’s walking back his statement just a bit.

For days, he’s been commenting about the federal judge assigned to the class-action lawsuit against Trump University.

Trump said the judge, an Indiana native of Mexican descent, couldn’t be impartial because of his ethnicity.

Tuesday afternoon, Trump said his comments on the judge were “misconstrued.”

But for many Republicans, the damage is done.

GOP leaders denounced the comments throughout the day.

St. Joseph County Republicans chose not to comment.

 “We will definitely be speaking out on that particular matter. We’re not doing so today,” St. Joseph County Republican Chairman Roy Saenz said at a press conference.

He said Tuesday was a day to focus on local candidates.

“We’ve seen in the primary process that we’ve had several contested primary results both Republican and Democrat at the local and state levels that were overshadowed by so much media being covered with the presidential race,” Saenz said.

Not everyone is remaining silent.

“You may not think it’s racist. I do,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said of the comments Tuesday.

Graham called for his fellow Republicans to withdraw their support for Trump, but added that he’s understanding of other decisions.

“I can understand why people can’t support Hillary Clinton, and I can understand wanting to support the nominee of the party,” Graham said.

That’s how House Speaker Paul Ryan reacted when asked about Trump, but not before disassociating himself from the comments about the judge.

“Claiming someone can’t do their job because of their race is sort of textbook definition of racist comments,” Ryan said Tuesday.