Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally at La Escuelita School in Oakland, California, on May 6, 2016. | Getty Clinton questions meaning of Trump's 'German heritage'

Hillary Clinton on Friday laced into Donald Trump for his repeated racially based attacks on the judge overseeing Trump University lawsuits, questioning whether people should read more into Trump's German lineage.

"It makes no sense to me," Clinton said in an interview with an ABC affiliate in Los Angeles. "The judge was born in Indiana. Yes, he's of Mexican heritage. Donald Trump is apparently of German heritage. What does that mean? We are all Americans."


Trump for weeks has gone on tirades against U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over two class-action lawsuits against Trump's now-defunct real estate seminar enterprise that critics claim was a sprawling scam. Trump has recently questioned whether Curiel has an "inherent conflict of interest" because his Mexican heritage causes him to balk at Trump's proposal to build a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"He would try to disqualify any woman who is a judge because he has said terrible things about women, any Muslim-American who's a judge anywhere," Clinton said. "If we start disqualifying people because of who their parents and grandparents might be and where they came from, that would be running counter to everything we believe in."