so president had a lot to say in response. he said he didn t make the comment. he isn t a racist. i wonder based on what the president said in that oval office, and based on other things he has said, about judge not being able to do his job because of his heritage, he called him a mexican and pointed out he s from indiana, about the he called him a mexican, based on the assertion there are fine people on both sides of the riots in charlottesville, do you think the president is a racist? i won t say that. i ll tell you the comments he made when i was in the white house i thought were vile, hate-filled, and they were racial in tone. no question about it. you can t talk about s-hole countries in africa and why don t we get more norwegians and europeans in the united states without the inescapable conclusion that the president is raising race as an issue for immigration. that was jake tapper s exclusive interview with democratic senator dick durbin. we have a lot to discuss.
really what we re talking about now is are they going to pass a government funding a short-term government funding measure, not pass an immigration measure. that seems as though i think that a little bit of that got lost in last thursday s meeting because of the folks on what word he used. the fact was that that was the moment, that moment has now passed and you don t dick durbin said earlier today, it took us four months to get here. these things take time. you can t do it in 2 1/2 day period. the proposal was never going to be the final deal, right. just a launching point. once trump went down that road, it became a first step that just got cut out from under them. another thing, i m with david, i ve written about this, that the word, this specific word doesn t matter. the one thunging i do want to address, we re still at the point where we have two united states senators, lindsey graham and dick durbin saying he said
and welcome back. we just heard jake tapper s exclusive interview with democratic senator dick durbin. they discussed that infamous oval office meeting where president trump referred to african countries in vulgar terms and said he wanted more immigrants from norway. senator durbin also aapplauded his republican senator lindsey graham for speaking out at that meeting and joining me now to discuss, we re back with chris cilizza. he made the point, he also made in the hearing, with secretary niels nielsen, that lindsey graham repeated the eventual girt, whi vulgarity, which makes it somewhat implausible that she wouldn t have heard it. i think that s the new piece of information we learned today about what how did this unfold, what really took place in that room. i think what we learned today and why perhaps different people
heard different things is because it wasn t just the president using the word, using the vulgarity. it was also lindsey graham. as you heard dick durbin tell jake tapper, lindsey graham was close to the president and got right back at him and repeated the vulgarity. so now what lindsey graham heard and repeated might be different than what other people heard initially come out of the president s mouth. maybe that was the confusion. again, i think all of that belies the point in graham was trying to make to the press. it doesn t matter whether he said s-house or s-hole, as senator durbin said. as they said when the republicans were trying to split hairs on that. also about senator nielsen s take on the words that were used that we heard senator durbin pretty incredibly describe with backup from senator graham. she seems to really emphasize what the president was saying
able to move something forward. it s especially the case when you re a cabinet member in the administration. we ll have to leave it there. i appreciate it. tune in to wolf at 1:00 for the second part of jake tapper s exclusive interview with senator dick durbin. inside politics begins in a minute. we know life can be hectic.