Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Friday that his fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham (R), who attended a bipartisan meeting with President Trump and lawmakers Thursday, confirmed a Washington Post account of Trump’s remarks calling Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations “shithole countries.”
Scott, the Senate’s lone black Republican, told The Post and Courier on Friday that Graham confirmed the newspaper’s account of the conversation, which Scott said he found “incredibly disappointing.”
“We ought not to disparage any other nation, frankly,” Scott said. “Thinking about the success of America. It is the melting pot. It’s the ability to weave together multiple communities together for one nation.”
{mosads}Graham reportedly challenged Trump on the comments, according to an account of the meeting earlier Friday from Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.).
“My colleague [Graham] spoke up and made a direct comment on what the president said,” Durbin said, according to MSNBC. “For him to confront the president as he did, literally sitting next to him, took extraordinary political courage and I respect him for it.”
Like many Democrats, Durbin went further than his Republican colleagues, calling the president’s Thursday remarks “racist.”
“In the course of his comments, [Trump] said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist,” Durbin told reporters on Friday. “I cannot believe in this history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.”
The White House did not immediately deny the remarks in a statement Thursday, but Trump issued an early-morning denial on Twitter, accusing Democrats of making the story up.
“Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said “take them out.” Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings — unfortunately, no trust!” Trump tweeted Friday.