Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) decried on Thursday President Trump’s comments demanding to know why the U.S. allows immigrants from “shithole” countries to enter, saying the president could just as easily “lead the Ku Klux Klan.”
“Today is going to be a very memorial day,” Gutiérrez said on MSNBC. “And that’s saying a lot in the Donald Trump presidency, because we now know that we have in the White House someone who could lead the Ku Klux Klan in the United States of America.”
Gutiérrez said that Trump’s comments were just the “matinee show” in his presidency, suggesting that were more inflammatory comments to come.
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Media reports surfaced on Thursday that Trump, frustrated about protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, wondered aloud during a meeting with lawmakers why the U.S. allows people from “shithole countries” to enter, and suggested that more people from countries like Norway should immigrate to the U.S.
The remarks drew widespread criticism from lawmakers, immigrant advocacy groups and foreign governments, including those of Haiti and Norway.
In a tweet Friday morning, Trump denied that he used such language in the meeting, acknowledging only that he talked “tough” on the subject.