[guest post by Dana]

In the past week, any number of GOP candidates have been vocal in their condemnation of Donald Trump’s “racist” comments about illegal aliens:

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best,” he said during the announcement. “They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”

Trump has not back pedaled on his comments, but rather doubled-down in light of the young woman in San Francisco killed by an illegal alien last week.

Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Lindsay Graham have all denounced his comments and suggested that he is damaging the brand of the Republican Party with his criticism. This in spite of polling data saying otherwise.

Ted Cruz, however, refuses to take the bait and is not interested in condemning Trump because he would rather focus on the bigger picture of what the real problem is:

“I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration,” the Texas senator said on NBC’s Meet the Press in an interview that aired Sunday. “The Washington cartel doesn’t want to address that. The Washington cartel doesn’t believe we need to secure the borders. The Washington cartel supports amnesty and I think amnesty’s wrong, and I salute Donald Trump for focusing on it. He has a colorful way of speaking. It’s not the way I speak, but I’m not going to engage in the media’s game of throwing rocks and attacking other Republicans. I’m just not going to do it.”

Your thoughts on Trump’s comments? Is he hurting the Republican “brand”? Does referring to the Republicans as having a “brand” make you smirk? And Ted Cruz, has he hurt his campaign by refusing to jump on the condemn-the-goofball bandwagon? Do you see this as having any lasting impact on the GOP in the 2016 election?

–Dana