Congress must repudiate racist remark
There is a reservoir of racism in our country that Donald Trump is not the first president to exploit. But that doesn’t make us a racist nation. Or does it? Much of the world is asking that question in response to the president’s reported contempt for “shithole countries” whose people are black or brown. In the same meeting, he expressed a preference for people from white countries, like Norway.
Congress must respond to this unprecedented insult to people of low-income countries — and to our national honor.
A resolution of censure would be appropriate, though unlikely. An alternative is a joint congressional declaration that the United States holds no racial or ethnic prejudices against any people, and regards no nation as inferior or unworthy. That would repudiate the outrage Trump committed, without requiring anyone to denounce him by name.
It would also provide an out for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, who appears to be terribly conflicted between two moral duties: the one, to denounce Trump’s bigotry; the other to save nearly 800,000 Dreamers from deportation by Trump’s decree.
Diaz-Balart was one of the seven members of Congress meeting with Trump last Thursday in the Oval Office, where the offensive remarks were said.
He has refused to comment on what was said. But it’s a sure bet that if Trump hadn’t spoken offensively, the congressman would be eager to say so.
Diaz-Balart says he is focused on the Dreamers, who were brought here illegally by their parents and protected from deportation by an Obama administration executive order that Trump has revoked.
“Nothing will divert my focus to stop the deportation of these innocent people whose futures are at stake,” Diaz-Balart said. “Problems are not solved with accusations, allegations and press interviews. They are solved with negotiations.”
We understand DiazBalart’s conflict. But let’s also remember that more than 300,000 people of Haitian descent live in South Florida, and they are his constituents, too.
Besides, failing to call out racism suggests we condone it.
Our history contributes to that impression. The 1924 immigration law, which discriminated against religious and racial minorities until 1965, still weighs in world memory and on our national conscience.
Trump’s denial is unworthy of belief. So are the recovered memories of Republican senators David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who initially said they couldn’t “recall” Trump’s words at the Thursday meeting, but on Sunday echoed his denial. The weight of evidence is against them.
Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the only Democrat at the Oval Office meeting on immigration, said emphatically that Trump had spoken the words “shithole nations.”
“He said, ‘Haitians? Do we need more Haitians?’ And then he went on when we started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That’s when he used these vile and vulgar comments, calling the nations they come from ‘shitholes,’ ” Durbin told reporters. “The exact word used by the president, not just once, but repeatedly.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham attended the meeting. Afterward, he told fellow South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, according to Scott, that the press accounts of what Trump had said were “basically accurate.” Graham also appeared to confirm it in statements to the press Friday, in which he complimented Durbin for his “extraordinary political courage” in rebuking Trump face to face.
Two other key Republicans, Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Virginia and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, were at the meeting. Their silence — like that of Diaz-Balart — is conspicuous.
More evidence supporting the original Washington Post report and Durbin’s remarks came from the White House itself. The initial Press Office response did not address the vulgar remarks, but tacitly confirmed them by referring to the immigration issue as an example of Trump fighting “for permanent solutions that make our country stronger…”
Many Republicans, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Gov. Rick Scott, have repudiated the bigotry that Trump expressed.
Still, Congress needs to speak with one voice on behalf of all the people.
America and the world are watching to see who will be brave, and what kind of country we are.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Elana Simms, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Howard Saltz.