Trump didn't use slur, senators say
Two Republicans at meeting contradict Democrat’s account.
A Republican senator who attended a Thursday immigration meeting at the White House forcefully denied Sunday that President Donald Trump had used the phrase “shithole countries” in describing Haiti and African nations, saying a Democratic senator’s account of the session was “a gross misrepresentation.”
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump “did not use that word,” and accused Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., of distorting what the president had said at the meeting, which included more than a halfdozen lawmakers.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., joined Perdue later in the morning in questioning Durbin.
“I didn’t hear that word either,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was.”
Cotton said Durbin “has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings,” a comment that Perdue echoed in his interview Sunday morning.
Ben Marter, a spokesman for Durbin, immediately attacked their assertions.
“Credibility is something that’s built by being consistently honest over time,” Marter wrote on Twitter. “Senator Durbin has it. Senator Perdue does not. Ask any-
one who’s dealt with both.”
The remarks by Perdue and Cotton were an escalation from a statement they released Friday, when they said they did “not recall the president saying these comments specifically.”
They also appear to conflict with the account of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was at the Thursday meeting. Graham told a fellow South Carolina Republican, Sen. Tim Scott, that news reports of Trump’s language were “basically accurate.”
The other lawmakers at the meeting, all Republicans, have either not discussed it publicly or made only vague comments.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, also at the meeting, said on “Fox News Sunday” that she could not recall the president “saying that exact phrase.”
Durbin had told reporters Friday that Trump had used the word “shithole” several times in front of the group during a discussion of a proposed bipartisan deal on immigration, and had said “things which were hatefilled, vile and racist.”
“I cannot believe that, in the history of the White House in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Durbin said.
Graham had reportedly admonished the president during the meeting by telling him that “America is an idea, not a race.” And a number of top Senate Republicans joined Graham on Friday in pushing back against Trump’s comments.
On Sunday morning, Durbin returned to the issue when he responded to a tweet Trump had posted accusing Democrats of wanting only “to talk and take desperately needed money away from our military” in their discussions on immigration policy.
Durbin wrote, “Republicans and Democrats negotiated in good faith to reach a deal that gives you what you asked for in front of the country on Tuesday. It’s time to lead and support the bipartisan deal.”