Meanwhile, Trump’s comments and the reaction to them have spotlighted the bitter divide among American evangelicals about his presidency.
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First, the setup. After Trump had very publicly said during that televised meeting with Congressional leaders that he would sign a “clean” bill to codify DACA and wanted to get that done before doing a larger immigration reform bill, the right-wing xenophobes in his base went nuts.
The controversy over Trump’s language continued after Durbin and other senators questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen – who was also at the meeting – as she testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Durbin has said Mr Trump used the term “s***hole” when speaking about Haiti and African countries at a White House meeting about immigration policy last week.
Nielsen testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that numerous people in the meeting used rough language, including the president, but she didn’t specifically recall him using the word Sen.
On Monday, two senators who said he did indeed use the disparaging remark stood by their account of what took place.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Saturday it would begin taking renewal applications from undocumented immigrants seeking to register for the DACA program.
Trump referred to comments made by Sen.
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) on Sunday said the president didn’t use “s**thole” to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations: “I’m telling you he did not use that word, George”, he said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.
On Twitter, Trump hit out at Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, who was present at last week’s meeting and insisted the president used the slur repeatedly.
The comments were later confirmed by other news outlets. The row broke out after Republican and Democratic lawmakers visited the President in the Oval Office on Thursday to work on a proposal for an immigration deal. “Right, he does not see race”, Eric Trump said.
South Carolina Republican Sen. And more than half – 54% – said it was appropriate for the media to repeat Trump’s language.
Asked about the initial Washington Post report on Trump’s remark, the White House issued a statement that did not deny Trump made the comment.
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Durbin, responded he didn’t “know how you could miss those words spoken by the president”.
