can find a way forward. so, mr. president, i m going to end today where i ended tuesday. close this deal. thank you, madam secretary. thank you, sir, for your leadership on this. i call on secretary harris. i would hope senator graham i don t know if that s a demotion or a promotion. i m sorry. before i do that, you don t have to answer this you re watching the senate judiciary committee, chairman chuck grassley about to call on governor harris of california. let s talk about the remarkable testimony, comments, more of a speech we just heard, not really questions, from republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. he was briefing the president on what he thought was a good bipartisan immigration proposal when we had the president s outburst disparaging haitians, calling african nations s-holes or s-house.
across the united states of america, including in my own congressional district. it would be nice if the president once in awhile would actually pay attention to the reality on the ground. and haitians have contributed a great deal as well. i ll just tell you, two republican senators who were in the meeting, they issued a statement referring to senator durbin s comments, the accusations levelled by senator durbin about these racist comments. they said, we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. that was senator cotton and senator purdue of georgia. you want to react to that, we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically? it kind of sounds looib like jeff sessions. i mean, let s think about this, wolf, you re in the oval office with members of the united states senate and members of the united states house of representatives. with the president of the united states of america. talking about an incredibly important issue around the d.r.e.a.
the most important issue. then there s the domino effect here in town about can you get anything done, or how does this complicate negotiations, whether it s over the spending, whether it s over some immigration compromise. to me those are side shows even though the government runs out of money in five days, four days. when you talk about that, you re moving away from the idea that why is the president s reflex to say why can t we have more norwegians and no haitians or africans? i think they ve fallen down on that. this is the guy who is in the oval office so we have to find a way to work with him. whether you re phil mattingly chasing people down on capitol hill every day and say, i haven t had a chance to see the president s twitter feed, or their views are evolving in the oval office because you want to get an immigration deal done, look, this is where republicans have largely come out on this issue. a lot of them condemned the president s comments, some more harshly than others,
uninformed, but i don t think he s a racist in the traditional sense. reporter: the president tried to deny he made the remarks, tweeting, never said anything derogatory about haitians, never said take them out, made up by dems. the ladies and gentlemen was tough but not the language used. what was really democratic senator dick durbin at the meeting says the president is not telling the truth. said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist. he said haitians, do we need more haitians? and then he went on and we started to describe the immigration from africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure, that s when he used the vile and vulgar comments calling the nations they come from shitholes. reporter: two other republican senators tom cotton and david purdue issued a joint statement saying we don t recall the president saying these
since taking office. we re waiting for a statement from his physician. the president is now on his way to his florida resort, mar-a-lago. he leaves behind a mess. at a white house immigration meeting, the president rejected a bipartisan deal on the d.r.e.a.m.ers and used vile and vulgar language, disparaging haitians and smearing some african nations with a disgusting slur. the president today issued a weak denial and two conservative allies strangely say they don t recall the slur, but democratic senator dick durbin says he heard it, calling the comments hate-filled, vile and racist. and republican senator lindsey graham says he confronted the president when he heard his ugly words. in fact, sources say the president spent the night asking people how his remarks were playing, and one says the president, quote, loves the controversy. even as the president today paid tribute to martin luther king jr., the shockwaves are spreading. a haitian american republican congresswoman is demanding