Twitter Erupts In Condemnation Of President Donald Trump’s Alleged ‘S**th**e’ Comment
After President Donald Trump was reported to have referred to Haiti, El Salvador and the entire African continent as “s**th**e countries” in a bipartisan meeting on immigration Thursday, pundits on Twitter began to explode in almost universal condemnation of the president’s words.
According to an article Thursday in the Washington Post, President Trump responded to a suggestion at the meeting that immigrants from Africa, Haiti, and El Salvador be protected by asking “Why are we having all these people from s**th**e countries come here?” He then allegedly went on to say that we should encourage more immigration from countries like Norway. The president then returned specifically to Haitians, about whom he was alleged to have previously said, “all have AIDS,” asking “Why do we need more Haitians?”
Trump responded in two tweets Friday morning that he used “tough language” at the immigration meeting but never used the word reported and that he didn’t actually say anything bad about Haitians.
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said “take them out.” Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings – unfortunately, no trust!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
According to an article Friday in USA Today, however, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says that Trump did, in fact, use the word “s**th**e” and called the president’s remarks “hate filled, vile and racist.”
Durbin wasn’t the only one to flat out call Trump a “racist” for his remarks, According to an article in Variety, Don Lemon began his broadcast on CNN Thursday night by declaring “The president of the United States is a racist,” before using a pointed moment of silence to insinuate, without actually speaking, some choice words for Trump supporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LagxU1Oq0Vw
Twitter pundits on Thursday night and Friday morning seemed to compete with one another for who could refute and condemn Trump’s words with the most powerful language, many of them openly calling the president a “racist” or a “white supremacist.”
At the same time, some of the countries offended by Trump’s reported statement have also begun to respond. NPR has collected the statements from countries such as Botswana, South Africa, and El Salvador, all of whom call the president’s remarks “offensive” and call on him to retract his statements. Possibly the most colorful denunciation of Trump comes from Kenyan politician Boniface Mwangi.
“Your embarrassment of a president is senile, impeach him and save yourselves from never-ending shame.”
It should be noted that there were two Twitter users who didn’t share in the anger directed at Donald Trump. Ann Coulter, a long-time supporter of the president who shares many of his immigration views, seemed to find humor in the moment, and Alex Jones, of InfoWars fame, used the uproar as an opportunity to introduce a new conspiracy theory.
https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones/status/951868100642770945