Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Friday that he "personally heard" President Trump make "hate-filled, vile, and racist" comments during a bipartisan immigration meeting Thursday that Durbin attended.
Lawmakers were reportedly in the Oval Office discussing changes to the visa lottery system when talk turned to immigrants from Africa and Trump asked why they would want people from "all these shithole countries" coming to America. While the White House did not deny the comments, Trump tweeted that "the language used by me ... was tough, but this was not the language used."
Trump's tweet "is not true," Durbin said. "He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly." Durbin also claimed that Trump used the specific word "shithole" more than once. Watch Durbin's comments below. Jeva Lange
The Week
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