President said, the political and moral implications, the Foreign Policy fallout and the effect on americans of all ages and colors throughout this hour. And joining me first, haiti ambassador of the United States. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. When did you hear about what the president said and how did you take it . I heard first about this yesterday afternoon when a reporter from the Washington Post reached out to me. My first reaction was surprise and disappointment that the president of the United States allegedly would actually make such comments about any group of people, let alone the community of haitians, among others, whom unfortunately very few times people do not understand what we as a nation have contributed to the United States as a community, as a people, over the years. Haitian americans fought alongside by side with u. S. Soldiers for the independence of this country. Weve been a good neighbor, weve been a good friend, weve been a good partner of the United States over the years. Up to this day, haitians and haitian americans continue to make great contributions to this country. On college campuses, there are haitian professors. In nursing homes, there are haitian nurses taking care of elders. In high school, we are teaching American Kids the way of life here. The way the haitian people and American People have intertwined over the years, it was discouraging to hear such comments, unfortunately. Now, the president did tweet today, he wrote, never said anything derogatory about haitians other than haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said, take them out, meaning take them out of the preferential status. I have a wonderful relationship with haitians. Probably should record future meetings. Unfortunately, no trust. There seems to be a clarification from senator durbin that the shole comment was a reference to the entire continent of africa. This is what dick durbin had to say as well. The question was raised about haitians, for example. We have a group that have temporary protective status in the United States because they were the victims of crises and disasters and political upheaval. The Largest Group is el salvador and the third is hondura and the third is haiti. His response to that, haitians . Do we need more haitians . Your response to that . Keep in mind today im sitting here when were supposed tobacco m be commemorating the from the earthquake in haiti. I thought we would be talking about the challenges haiti face, some of the progress we have made since the earthquake. Unfortunately we are here discussing alleged comments made by the president of the United States. Whether or not it was said, thats not the issue for us as a community, as a country. Haiti, once again, is making the rounds in the news for regrettable comments. The stigma, the cliche, the stereotypes that are on haiti have got to stop. Unfortunately, they cant stop at the white house, in one institution thats involved in this conversation right now. Whether or not the president said this, we hope he didnt say those things. If he did, we hope he apologizes not just to the Haitian Community but to the American People. Between last night and this morning, i received thousands and thousands of emails from haitian americans expressing their gratitude to the people of haiti, expressing the love and history that has bonded between haiti and the United States over the years. So its regrettable that im sitting here having this conversation today when there are so many important things were discussing. And unfortunately, the white house, the president of the United States and senators are going back and forth over this idea of what was said about haiti, but unfortunately, haiti becomes a victim regardless of who said what at the end of the day. Were in dismay about what was said. We are disappointed by what had been said in some ways, but also were looking forward. We hope this can be a platform to continue to engage with the American People, also engage with the administration. There are a number of things that we as two countries, as republics in the region, that we want to make sure things are happening better for both of our countries. As we sit here at this moment, your president , your government has called in the chief of mission thats correct. Dai the american top diplo. Do you not have an ambassador in haiti . Its one of the countries we have not named or confirmed an ambassador. But your government is now telling the american diplomat how you feel. Have you heard anything from the administration in washington . So far nothing. Again, everything has been playing out in a public domain, in the press for the most part. We have yet to hear from the state department or from the white house on this issue. The state department has not called . Unfortunately we have not heard from the state department on this issue. This afternoon, i believe at 4 53 in the afternoon, the time the earthquake hit eight years ago, you were already planning a commemorative occasion. Thats right. 3,000 peoples lives lost. We went down there and saw the buildings pancaked, the people you were trying to pull out and the people who eventually survived. The massive effort which then even led to u. N. Workers infecting haitians with cholera. Theres been so much victimization of haiti, thats one of the things that is profoundly moving to people like myself who were there in the 90s, and you have the struggles. By the way, the commemoration has to do with the earthquake and today. The reason of those haitians being here is the issue of trying to make progress on the ground, we hope we are extending them as we do this. Its unfortunate the conversation has moved away from the stereotypes of haiti. Were not just a country looking for charity. Were trying to stand on our own two feet. We have a plan to get the country in the right direction. Were looking at the partnership of the American Government as well as the American People. So those comments, we feel they were regrettable. They were counterproductive in terms of strengthening the relationship between haiti and the United States. As an american, let me be the first to apologize here to you. Well wait to see what our government does. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much. My condolen ces for everything that has transpired. Kristen welker is at the white house. No apology, and the irony today we saw live the president signing a proclamation that were not sure how necessary it was, because the Martin Luther king jr. Holiday was enacted by an act of Congress Many years ago. Reporter thats right, a lot of people looking at todays event and really noting the contrast between honoring dr. Martin luther king, and, of course, these reports about President Trump referring to haitian and african immigrants and those countries as shole countries. The white house not denying that those comments were made but President Trump, andrea, had disputing the characterization. Let me read you one of his tweets and do some analysis on the other side. He said, the language used by me at the daca meeting but this was not the language used. He said he also did not say anything derogatory about haitians and never said take them out. Now, based on reporting from my colleagues, frank thorpe and kasie hunt, were learning a little more about how that meeting actually went down. According to their reporting, trump and lawmakers were discussing immigrants from haiti and then they shifted to african nations. It was after that discussion of african nations that he made those vulgar comments, largely seen by many in the room as a broader commentary on immigrants from both haiti and african nations. But again, that distinction, we believe, is what is allowing the president to push back on this characterization that he made derogatory comments about haitians. Either way, andrea, this is a political problem for the white house. This is not the first time they have dealt with racially tinged comments by this president. Of course, one of the recent examples of that was in the wake of the charlottesville riots when white nationalists took to the streets, and of course it turned deadly in one instance. President trump in the wake of that said that, effectively drew a comparison between the white nationalists and the counterprotester. This is another instance of this which the white house is going to have to deal with. And from a policy perspective, andrea, it could, and i want to express that word could, it could make it more difficult for the president to sit down and negotiate with democrats over an immigration deal to get what he wants in terms of funding for the border wall, to get what he wants in terms of chain migration. Democrats, of course, want to fix daca. This is a political problem on a whole range of different levels. The backlash has been bipartisan, andrea. Kristen welker, thank you so much. Joining me now, chuck todd, political director and moderator of meet the press and host of mtp daily. And political analyst Eugene Robinson and columnist at the Washington Post. Chuck, lets talk about what we saw today, because weve seen the president after no denials yesterday and after even some reporting that the white house was not displeased that the base was modified over his compromising signals earlier in the week over daca and the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. Now we heard the president trying to explain it. Theres still no firm denial and we have the confirmation from senator durbin. What do you think is happening here on a day when, as you saw, they made quite a big deal out of the Martin Luther king jr. Day proclamation. I think its obvious why hes trying to make a big deal out of that. Hes desperately trying to see if they can preserve any hope that somehow people might look to him as some sort of attempt at unifying, you know, even day, not necessarily unifying figure. Im trying to figure out which one of these rabbit holes to go down with you, andrea. I do think there is a little bit of political schizophrenia here with the president when it comes to immigration. The guy we saw on wednesday, in that 54minute meeting, doesnt sound like the person that Lindsey Graham and dick durbin met with yesterday. Hes clearly spooked by his base, right . If there is one thing you know, its like if hes making ann coulter unhappy, the rest of the Republican Party feels a little more uncomfortable. If ann coulter is starting to get happier about the president s remarks on immigration, thats making everybody else in the party uncomfortable. I think hes personally struggling with this immigration issue because he fears that the only people left supporting him right now are the people that care about a hardline stance on immigration. The president is not going to win over anybody if he cuts a deal. But politically he has to cut a deal if he wants rick scott to win a senate seat in the state of florida, for instance. Thats the box hes in and hes only made it harder for himself now. Eugene, you wrote today in your column, you said, in terms of racism, hes crystal clear. Yeah, theres no schizophrenia there. Its very consistent and very clear. Whats the difference between norway and african countries and haiti . You know, african countries are shole countries. Maya angelou says when somebody shows you who they are, why dont you believe them the first time . Well, this isnt the first time for President Trump. This is the umpteenth time. He said all haitians have aids. Its extraordinary. Just for the record, until recently, african immigrants were the best educated recent cohort of immigrants coming into the United States. Those numbers have slipped a bit in recent years. Theyre still better educated than the u. S. Population as a whole. So its not, as President Trump would say, the quality of the people who were coming in that he objects to, its got to be color. And rich larry, this is a week that the president tried to push back the narrative reflected in fire and fury, which is jumping off the bookshelves, and whether you find error in it or not, it shows this president was losing his grip, was childlike, was not paying attention. So he holds this 55minute oncamera negotiation, if you will, makes a few errors along the way. He talks about earmarks, has to be corrected by Kevin Mccarthy but is basically engaged. Then we see the extraordinary mistake over fisa where he leaps onto a Conspiracy Theory on fox news 30 minutes later despite a strong statement about the fisa reauthorization as its going up for a final vote on the house floor. A strong statement from the white house, something that has been worked on for months and months and months by the intelligence agencies and his own security cabinet. What do we make of this president . Hes not a policy monk, you can say that about him. And what chuck said about the immigration policy, you can either be the guy that goes into that bipartisan meeting thats televised for 55 minutes and say, ill sign anything that Congress Comes up with because i trust everyone in this room so much, im just desperate for any deal, or you can be the guy who rejected that gang of 6 proposal in the white house last night and spoke in these vulgar terms. You cant be the same guy. At least you cant and achieve any sort of coherence. I think the odds of a clean daca repeal that the white house would have considered a disaster five days ago have materially increased over the last 18 hours. I agree. Thats the irony, isnt it . Chuck, jump in here. No, no, thats the irony, i think, now, because youre going to have a bunch of democrats uncomfortable with being caught in a compromise deal. Youre going to have now republicans feeling as if they have no choice but to forge a compromise. Look, im curious to see if the hill leadership on the republican side has the guts to basically say, you know what, lets cut the white house out, lets cut our own deal, shove it on the budget bill and see if he vetoes it. That could be where were headed. Some form of what rich said, the president has made it now where this immigration deal is going to make going to be even worse for those that wanted to see some new restrictions moving forward. It was already hard for democrats to give trump what he really needed. He needed something he could call a wall, whether it was five miles, ten miles, some solid structure somewhere. They doubled the fence form in this deal. Donald trump could have easily said, rich, they want to call it a fence but hey, i just got them to pay for the wall. How about that . It just got harder for everyone. And jeff flake said, the words used by the president , as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough, they were abhorrent and repul repulsive. Durbin and graham going in not knowing they would be joined by these other participants, apparently. The state department not saying well check into this, haiti was the only other country that joined with the United States on that Jerusalem Vote in the u. N. Security council which was not an easy situation for them. What you do is you thank them for that. You thank them materially for that. Thats called diplomacy. But this administration is not conducting diplomacy, as you well know. We could do a whole other show on the ambassadors who havent been appointed and the specialists at the state department, the regional specialists who are no longer there. People who know anything about anything are no longer there. So dont expect the normal diplomatic reaction because there arent the people there to even conduct that. Well, i understand why trump wanted cotton and others in that meeting, because he wanted to fortify himself against durbin and graham. And what they offered him on trumps terms, and i agree with this, was a rotten deal. We talk about daca and the d. R. E. A. M. Act, what theyre proposing is a d. R. E. A. M. Act with transparency as well. No deal on chain migration and only a little divisivement on the visa lottery. That was the immediate context for these remarks about the shole countries. I would argue that a lot of democrats, certainly, on the hill would say it was too sweet a deal and now its a better deal than any he would still be getting because he has so muddied the waters. Were going to leave that there. There will be a lot more on mtp daily with chuck. Chuck, thank you very much. I know you have a busy day. Rich lowry, thank you for being here. And we cant thank you all enough for being here. Congresswoman barbara lee of california joining us next. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. How about some of the lowest options fees . Are you raising your hand . Good then its time for power e trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. E trade. The original place to invest online. A trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home, with Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection, which could lead to hospitalizations. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 , a 94 decrease. Applied the day of chemo, Neulasta Onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day, so you can stay home. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. 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