President Trump blasted a liberal senator, accusing him of lying about the commander-in-chief’s “shithole” countries comment.
Tweeting on Monday, Trump referred to Sen. Dick Durbin as “Dicky,” alleging the politician misrepresented his remarks on immigration last Thursday.
“Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t be made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our military,” wrote the President.
Trump, as Politico.com notes, has made a habit of assigning offensive and often derogatory monikers to his opponents. “Crooked Hillary, “Lyin’ Ted,” and “Crazy Bernie Sanders” were all names invented during the 2016 presidential election.
Now, the diminutive “Dicky Durbin” is being copped to the senator who called out President Trump last week, accusing him of using “hate-filled, vile and racist” language against immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. The Chief Executive purportedly wondered aloud at a meeting why the United States would want workers and refugees from “shithole” countries, saying he’d instead prefer to increase arrivals from Norway and similarly prosperous places.
Using his typically bombastic and exaggerative rhetoric, Trump said during a Sunday sit-down that he’s “the least racist person you have ever interviewed.”
What happened at the meeting is still a mild subject of debate. Certain conservatives told the press they’d either overheard or had been relayed the “shithole countries” remark, while others stressed that the phrasing hadn’t been nearly so offensive.
Former Massachusetts governor and 2012 presidential contender Mitt Romney took to Twitter on Monday, saying an immigrant’s “nation is as irrelevant as their race.”
“The poverty of an aspiring immigrant’s nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race. The sentiment attributed to POTUS is inconsistent w/ America’s history and antithetical to American values,” wrote Romney, is who purportedly eyeing a Utah Senate seat. “May our memory of Dr. King buoy our hope for unity, greatness, & ‘charity for all.’”
Romney, according to Politico, has been a frequent critic of President Trump. Nevertheless, he was floated as a potential Secretary of State pick for the current administration.
After Trump’s election, Romney was among the prominent Republicans who blasted the president’s reaction to a domestic terror attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Trump’s words on immigration come at an especially contentious time in American political history. For the better part of the past year, the president has repeatedly tried – and sometimes succeeded – in curbing immigration from countries deemed undesirable. A triad of executive orders were passed with the intent of keeping Muslims from entering the United States.
In September, President Trump formally rescinded the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, despite having publicly supported its recipients.
Last week’s meeting was part of a congressional effort to negotiate the future of former DACA beneficiaries, effectively balancing their lives in the United States against President Trump’s demands for a bigger and better wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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