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'I am not a racist,' Trump says, after 'shithole' nations remark backlash 'I am not racist,' Trump says, after 'shithole' nations remark fallout
(about 4 hours later)
‘I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed’, president says, denying making the statements attributed to him President says he is ‘least racist person you’ve ever interviewed’ as he denies making comment
Associated Press Kevin Rawlinson and agencies
Mon 15 Jan 2018 07.30 GMT Mon 15 Jan 2018 10.49 GMT
First published on Mon 15 Jan 2018 02.11 GMTFirst published on Mon 15 Jan 2018 02.11 GMT
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Donald Trump defended himself on Sunday in the wake of recent disparaging comments about Haiti and African nations, declaring “I am not a racist”, as two Republican senators backtracked on their interpretation of the comments. Donald Trump has insisted he is not racist following an international outcry over an offensive comment he is accused of making about some African, central American and Caribbean countries.
The president addressed the issue as he arrived for dinner at his private golf club with the House majority leader Kevin McCarthy of California. The US president was criticised by the UN and the African Union (AU) after it was credibly reported that he had referred to Haiti, El Salvador and nations in Africa as “shithole countries” during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday.
Asked what he thinks about people who think he is racist, Trump said, “No, No. I am not a racist.” Trump defended himself on Sunday, telling reporters “I am not a racist” as he arrived for dinner at his private golf club with the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy.
“I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you,” he told reporters. “I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you,” he said.
Trump has been accused of using the word “shithole” to describe African countries during an Oval Office meeting last Thursday with a bipartisan group of six senators. The president also questioned the need to admit more Haitians to the US, according to people who were briefed on the conversation but were not authorized to describe the meeting publicly. On Friday, the UN human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, condemned the “shocking and shameful” comment.
Trump also said in the meeting that he would prefer immigrants from countries such as Norway instead. “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’ whose entire populations are not white and, therefore, not welcome,” he told reporters at a news briefing in Geneva.
Trump on Sunday denied making the statements attributed to him, but didn’t get into specifics about what he did or did not say. Trump has previously tried to pass a ban on travel to the US from various Muslim-majority countries, which a judge said was a continuation of his “promise to exclude Muslims from the United States”.
“Did you see what various senators in the room said about my comments?” he asked. “They weren’t made.” Colville said: “This isn’t just a story about vulgar language. It’s about opening a door to humanity’s worst side. It’s about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and even destroy the lives of many people.
Two Republican senators who had earlier said they did not recall Trump using the vulgarity to describe African countries backtracked on Sunday and challenged other senators’ descriptions of the remark. “And that’s perhaps the single most damaging and dangerous consequence of this type of comment by a major political figure.”
Georgia Senator David Perdue and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton had issued a statement on Friday saying they “do not recall the President saying those comments specifically.” The AU, made up of 55 countries, also condemned the remark and demanded an apology.
However, Perdue on Sunday described as a “gross misrepresentation” reports that Trump used the vulgarity. He said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were mistaken in indicating that was the case. All four senators were at the meeting. “This is even more hurtful given the historical reality of just how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves and also terribly surprising, as the United States remains a massively positive example as just how migration can give birth to a nation,” said a spokeswoman for the union’s chair.
“I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation,” Perdue said on ABC’s “This Week.” Trump has faced claims of racism throughout his adult life. He insisted Barack Obama was not born in the US during his presidency and demanded that his predecessor release his birth certificate to demonstrate otherwise.
Cotton said he “didn’t hear” the word used “and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was,” Cotton told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” In 1989, he took out full-page ads in four New York newspapers demanding the return of the death penalty after five black teenagers were arrested over the rape of a woman in Central Park. They were innocent.
Meanwhile, Trump’s comments and the reaction to them have spotlighted the bitter divide among American evangelicals about his presidency. In 1973, the family business, of which Trump was president, was sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent apartments to African Americans. The suit was settled “without an admission of guilt” and the organisation was required to make a series of changes designed to ensure it complied with anti-discrimination laws.
While some of his evangelical backers expressed support for his leadership, many evangelical leaders who defended him in the past would not comment on the remarks. But other conservative Christians called the president racist and said church leaders had a moral imperative to condemn him. The comment about other nations was reportedly made during a bipartisan meeting aimed at finding a compromise deal for Dreamers, young people without legal immigration status who were brought to the US as children. Unless an agreement is reached, the Daca program will be scrapped in early March.
“Your pro-life argument rings hollow if you don’t have an issue with this xenophobic bigotry,” tweeted pastor Earon James of Relevant Life Church in Pace, Florida. Hopes of reaching a deal were unravelling on Sunday amid a war of words over the remark.
After the meeting, the Democratic senator Dick Durbin said Trump had made repeated “hate-filled, vile and racist” remarks. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, described the reports as “basically accurate”.
Two other Republican senators, David Perdue and Tom Cotton, issued a statement on Friday saying they did not “recall the president saying those comments specifically”. Two days later, they backtracked.
Perdue described the reports that Trump used the word as a “gross misrepresentation”. He said Durbin and Graham had been mistaken. All four senators were at the meeting.
“I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation,” Perdue said on ABC’s This Week.
Cotton told CBS’s Face the Nation that he did not hear the word being used “and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was”.
On Sunday, Trump said: “Did you see what various senators in the room said about my comments? They weren’t made.”
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
US immigrationUS immigration
HaitiHaiti
AfricaAfrica
Race issues
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