News

Actions

President Trump denies using term 's---hole' to describe African nations

President Trump denies using term 's---hole' to describe African nations
Posted at 7:46 AM, Jan 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-12 07:46:04-05

President Donald Trump is denying reports that he used to term "s---hole" to refer to African nations in a meeting on Thursday with lawmakers.

Trump tweeted, "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 meeting was with senators on a compromise immigration deal that would increase border security while protecting DACA participants.

"Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here?" Trump said in the White House meeting with a bipartisan group of senators, the Washington Post reported, referring to African countries and Haiti.

Trump says a bipartisan immigration proposal is "a big step backwards." He tweets that it would force the U.S. "to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly."

Trump seems to be defending himself against the furor over his vulgar words to describe African countries. Trump questioned at a White House meeting Thursday why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and Africa than from places like Norway.

Trump says the "so-called bipartisan" deal "was a big step backwards" because it doesn't fund a wall along the Mexican border.

He adds: "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs."