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White House appears to confirm Donald Trump 's***hole countries' comments White House appears to confirm Donald Trump 's***hole countries' comments
(35 minutes later)
  White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not deny that Donald Trump had called Haiti and some African nations "shithole countries" on Tuesday, saying the President himself had never denied using harsh language on immigration.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not deny that Donald Trump had called Haiti and some African nations "shithole countries" on Tuesday, saying the President himself had never denied using strong language on immigration. Asked why Mr Trump had defended the comments privately but denied them publicly, Ms Sanders said: “The president hasn’t said he didn’t use strong language."
Asked why Mr Trump defended the comments privately but denied them publicly, Ms Sanders said: "The president hasn’t said he didn’t use strong language and this is an important issue, he’s passionate about it, he’s not going to apologise for trying to fix our immigration system.” "This is an important issue, he’s passionate about it, he’s not going to apologise for trying to fix our immigration system," she added.
Several attendees at an Oval Office meeting on immigration last week said the President wondered aloud why the US took in immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries, asking: “Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?”
The White House did not initially deny the report, but after a bipartisan backlash – in which many accused the President of being racist – Mr Trump fired back.
"The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted.
But Mr Trump spent the evening before calling friends and advisers to defend his remarks, according to the Associated Press. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin confirmed that Mr Trump had used the word "s***hole," while Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue said they heard the President say "s***house" instead, according to the Washington Post.
Ms Sanders responded to allegations of racism on Tuesday by attempting to paint his critics as hypocritical.
"Why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV, why did Chuck Schumer and all of his colleagues come and beg Donald Trump for money?" Mr Sanders said, referring to the time before Mr Trump ran for office.
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"Why did they want to be with him for years and years for various activities?" she asked. "...I think it’s just an outrageous and ludicrous excuse."
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