Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 361 of the Trump Administration, a day devoted, of course, to remembrance of the reverend dr. Martin luther king jr. , and politically the start of a critical week for this white house. The president is back in washington from florida where the firestorm ignited by racial comments as hes quoted as having made about africans and haitians at a meeting in the oval office has not died down. And tonight robert costa of the Washington Post, who will join us in just a moment, is now reporting on that meeting in the oval office. White house officials and congressional aides tell the post this, quote, when President Trump spoke by phone with senator richard j. Durbin around 10 15 a. M. Last thursday, he expressed pleasure with durbins outline of a bipartisan immigration pact and praised the highranking Illinois Democrats efforts. The president then asked if senator lindsey o. Graham, his onetime foe turned ally was on
Those words are just as powerful. I know it is hard. I posted it on social media today. Many of you responded by saying, don, i needed to hear that message today, but it is really, really hard to do that with whats going on. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Thats the essence of dr. Kings entire message, appealing to what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. It is a high ideal to live up to. Its a lot easier to answer hate with hate, to answer harsh words with more harsh words. Especially when some of the harshest words are coming from the president of the United States degrading immigrants and their countries of origin with vulgar language, playing semantic games and trying to distract from exactly which derogatory term he used. Was it holes or was it house . Belittling the senator who confirmed that the president used that vulgar language. Either word, its in the same spirit. None of that is worthy of the highest office in the land. None of that is worthy
White house. The president is back in washington from florida where the firestorm ignited by racial comments hes quoted to having made about african nations and racism has not died down. Now reporting on that meeting in the oval office, white house officials and congressional aides tell the post this, quote, when President Trump spoke by phone with senator richard j. Durbin around 10 15 last thursday, he expressed pleasure with durbins outline of a bipartisan immigration pact and praised the highranking democrats efforts. He then asked if Lindsey Graham was on board, which durbin affirmed. But when they arrived at the oval office, the two senators were surprised to find that trump was far from ready to finalize the agreement. He was, quote, fired up and surrounded by hardline conservatives such as senator tom cotton and he shrugged off suggestions from durbin and others the president called nations from africa socalled blankhole countries. The rift over those remarks threatened prevent
Dream of racial harmony, the president is on the attack against the democrat who publicly confirmed that mr. Trump used vulgar language to insult african immigrants. Before leaving florida for washington, mr. Trump posted a tweet accusing the Senate Minority leader of misrepresenting his remarks. Senator dick durbin, the number two democrat in the senate, is standing by his statement and hes challenging the vague and confusing denials by mr. Trump and two republican senators denials contradict by multiple sources. Theres no denying that this controversy has helped derail efforts to protect young immigrants who came to the United States under the program known as daca. In his tweet tonight, mr. Trump is blaming senator durbin and democrats even though the president personally shot down a proposed bipartisan deal. It is all adding more uncertainty to the latest efforts to avoid a Government Shutdown with the deadline just four days away. Were also following the fallout after a false Nucl