President Trump on Friday denied referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as “shithole countries” during a bipartisan meeting with senators on Thursday. A Democratic aide told NBC News that lawmakers were 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. Trump, who met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday, said the U.S. should try to instead attract people from Norway and similar countries. In a statement, the White House did not dispute the remarks, merely saying Trump “will always fight for the American people.” Trump tweeted Friday that “the language used by me … was tough, but this was not the language used.”
NEW: President Trump says he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country" https://t.co/jX3VBBACt8 pic.twitter.com/4kJDpGFf3G
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 12, 2018