16 January 2018 10:27 am
(c) 2018, The Washington Post · Mike Debonis · WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “not a racist” and denied that he had spoiled chances for an immigration overhaul in Congress by using a vulgarity to describe poor countries as relations between key Republican and Democratic lawmakers turned poisonous. With the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants in the balance, Trump blamed Democrats for fouling chances for a deal addressing young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.
And in an extaordinary statement, he called himself “the least racist person.” Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., who attended the Oval Office meeting last week at which Trump reportedly referred to “shithole countries,” had previously said they could not recall whether Trump used the term, but on Sunday they denied outright that the
president had.
They suggested that a Democrat who publicly confirmed the remarks, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, could not be trusted.
The accusations prompted Democrats to blast the GOP senators for impugning a colleague’s integrity, while also slamming Trump and his remarks as unabashedly racist.