'I am not a
racist,' Trump says, after backlash over 'shithole' nations remark
‘I am the
least racist person you have ever interviewed’, president says, denying making
the statements attributed to him
Associated
Press
Mon 15 Jan
2018 05.43 GMT First published on Mon 15 Jan 2018 02.11 GMT
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.
The
president addressed the issue as he arrived for dinner at his private golf club
with the House majority leader Kevin McCarthy of California.
Asked what
he thinks about people who think he is racist, Trump said, “No, No. I am not a
racist.”
“I am the
least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you,” he told
reporters.
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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.
Trump also
said in the meeting that he would prefer immigrants from countries such as
Norway instead.
Trump on
Sunday denied making the statements attributed to him, but didn’t get into
specifics about what he did or did not say.
“Did you
see what various senators in the room said about my comments?” he asked. “They
weren’t made.”
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.
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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.”
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.
“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 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.”
Meanwhile,
Trump’s comments and the reaction to them have spotlighted the bitter divide
among American evangelicals about his presidency.
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.
“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.
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