Former President Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power panned President Trump’s “miserably racist” comments on Thursday that referred to certain immigrants as coming from “shithole countries.”
“Miserably racist comments from a disastrously ignorant person in support of mindlessly cruel policies,” Power tweeted alongside a report of Trump’s comments in an Oval Office meeting Thursday.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that in a meeting with lawmakers Trump referred to immigrants from Haiti and African countries as coming from “shithole countries.”
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, while discussing protections for immigrants from several countries, according to the report.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) were present at the meeting and were surprised by the comments, according to the Post.
Power is a longtime human rights advocate who previously served under the top officials assigned to Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council, and taught foreign policy and human rights at Harvard’s school of government.