Trump denies remarks insulting Haiti, Africa

Senator Richard Durbin pushes back on denials, says president said ‘hate-filled, vile’ things

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday denied using the term “s---hole countries” to describe Haiti and African nations during a Thursday Oval Office meeting on immigration.

And he attempted to shift the day’s news coverage to focus on a bipartisan immigration overhaul proposal offered by Sens. Richard J. Durbin and Lindsey Graham — a plan he rejected during an Oval Office meeting that also featured immigration hawks from his White House and Congress.

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made — a big setback for DACA!”

The president allegedly called those nations “s---hole countries” when complaining about their immigrants to the United States, as first reported by the Washington Post. He also reportedly said he wants more immigrants from places like Norway, again stirring allegations of racism and bringing condemnation from lawmakers and minority groups.

On Friday, Durbin ripped into Trump for using “hate-filled, vile and racist” language when talking about immigrants from Haiti and Africa, saying the president’s denials were false..

Durbin was in Chicago for an annual breakfast to honor Martin Luther King Jr. after taking part in the Thursday Oval Office meeting. Durbin said he’s not optimistic in the aftermath of the meeting that congressional Democrats and Republicans will be able to agree on another immigration deal.

Durbin said he was the lone Democrat among about a dozen lawmakers in the meeting with Trump to pitch a tentative compromise on immigration, including the fate of so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. illegally as young children. He said media accounts of what transpired have been accurate.

“In the course of his comments, (Trump) said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist,” Durbin said. “I use those words advisedly. I understand how powerful they are.”

“I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and of that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday. You’ve seen the comments in the press. I have not read one of them that’s inaccurate.”

Graham also broke his public silence on Friday.

The South Carolina Republican, who was on hand Thursday for the president’s remarks, released a statement Friday afternoon explaining that he “said my piece directly to (Trump).

“The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel,” Graham continued. “I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals.”

Having had his reaction to Trump’s remarks made public by Durbin, Graham felt little need to confirm or deny the reports himself.

“I appreciate Senator Durbin’s statements and have enjoyed working with him and many others on this important issue,” Graham said in his statement.

Graham went on to say, “The American ideal is embraced by people all over the globe. It was best said a long time ago, ‘E Pluribus Unum’ — ‘Out of Many, One.’ Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness. In reforming immigration we cannot lose these American Ideals.”

But Sen. Tom Cotton, RArk., and Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., issued a joint statement Friday suggesting otherwise.

“We do not recall the president saying these comments specifically,” Cotton and Perdue said. “But what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest.”

Trump’s self defense of his reported description of Haiti and African countries came the morning after a senior White House spokesman released a statement that did not deny the president uttered the slur during the meeting; in fact, the spokesman also defended Trump’s underlying point.

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement. “He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”

Botswana's government was the first on the African continent to condemn Trump's statements, referring to them as "highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist."

Botswana summoned the U.S. ambassador to express its displeasure over the remarks and to inquire as to whether Botswana was a "s--hole country": "The government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial relations for so many years."

Botswana called on the African Union and regional leadership bodies in Africa to condemn Trump over his comments.

Members of both parties were very critical of the president’s reported slur.

Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, said in a statement that Trump’s comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and (flew) in the face of our nation’s values.”

“The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned,” the congresswoman said.