DONALD ON DONALD/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Friday [1-12-18] appeared to deny he had questioned a day earlier why the U.S. would admit immigrants from ‘shithole countries’ in Africa but acknowledged he had used ‘tough’ language, while criticizing an agreement on immigration legislation reached by a group of bipartisan senators…
Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), who was in the meeting, confirmed Friday that Mr. Trump said all of the comments attributed to him.
In a series of tweets Friday morning, Mr. Trump also said he wanted to prevent the nation from having to take in immigrants from ‘high crime countries which are doing badly.’…
At that meeting, asking why the U.S. would want to admit people from Africa, the source of many diversity lottery applicants, Mr. Trump asked lawmakers, ‘Why do we want all these people from these shithole countries here? We should have people from places like Norway,’ The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Mr. Trump also said he opposed granting a legal status, in particular, to immigrants from Haiti. One person said he asked, ‘What do we want Haitians here for?’ The White House didn’t deny the president’s comments at the time.”
-Rebecca Ballhaus and Laura Meckler, “Senator Contradicts Trump Denial of Using Crude Remark in Immigration Meeting,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 12, 2018 10:14am