“Donald Trump is getting headlines for saying immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’ But for months the GOP race for president has been shadowed by xenophobia, as some candidates or those backing them have embraced racist and white nationalist themes,” Axios reports.
“It’s partly a reflection of how Trump has moved Republican politics toward the harder-edged, ‘us vs. them’ view that now dominates the GOP’s base and is reshaping its membership in Congress.”
“It’s not just Trump. Even as the GOP has recruited more minority prospects for public office — this year’s initial field for the presidential race was historically diverse — more Republicans are latching onto Trump’s racially divisive rhetoric.”
