Two GOP senators who deny hearing Trump say 'shithole' reportedly heard him say a similar vulgarity instead

The White House did not initially deny or push back on firsthand reports last Thursday that President Trump said the U.S. should not take in immigrants from "shithole countries" like Haiti, African nations, and El Salvador "because aides knew that Trump had said it and that the president wasn't even too upset," The Washington Post reports, citing "people involved in the talks."

While "many White House aides were concerned that the story was exploding beyond the usual level for a Trump controversy," nearly every top official decided to attend a going-away party for top White House aide Dina Powell, the Post adds, and Trump spent some part of Thursday evening "calling friends and asking how they expected it to play with his political supporters." The feedback wasn't negative. "Everyone was saying it would help with the base," one person who spoke with the president told the Post.

Still, by Friday morning, Trump seemed to be denying that his "tough" language included the word "shithole," and by Sunday, two Republican senators in the meeting, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), said they couldn't recall hearing Trump say that vulgarity; Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she didn't "recall him saying that exact phrase." Well, the Post reports:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who was in the meeting and confirmed Trump's vulgar comments, didn't seem too upset about Cotton kind of contradicting him, and he stood by his version of events.

Whatever version of Trump's obscenity you believe, it has made a deal to protect more than 700,000 DREAMers a much harder lift.