During an immigration meeting with a bipartisan group of six senators on January 11, President Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and several African nations as “s***hole countries.”

“Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?” was reportedly what two people briefed on the meeting heard from President Trump, according to the Washington Post.

In the short time after the comment, massive controversy spread across the U.S. Trump was repeatedly accused of being racist, to which he responded, “No, no. I am not a racist.” He added, “I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you.” He also denied making the statements attributed to him, but avoided delving into the specifics of what he did or did not say. Earlier reports indicated that Trump had expressed disgust for immigrants from Haiti, and claimed that all of the individuals coming to the US from the island have AIDS.

compiled by Rich Wang

The Washington Post quotes Trump on the issue as saying:

Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.

The meeting was about the people who’d fled to the US after disasters hit their homes in places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti, and the conditions of their stay.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the only Democrat at Thursday’s meeting, said Trump did say what he was reported to have said, stating that the remarks were “vile, hate-filled and clearly racial in their content.” He said Trump used the most vulgar term “more than once.” When it came to talk of extending protections for Haitians, Durbin said Trump replied, “We don’t need more Haitians.” The senator continued, “He said, ‘Put me down for wanting more Europeans to come to this country. Why don’t we get more people from Norway?'”

However, Republican senators David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who also attended the meeting, said in a statement Friday that they “do not recall the president saying these comments specifically.” On Sunday, they backtracked and challenged other senators’ descriptions of the remarks.

“I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation,” Perdue said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Cotton told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he “didn’t hear” the word used – “and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was.”

Bryan Ung, a senior at ERHS, expresses his thoughts on the matter. He says that it is “hurtful to other countries about how [biased] we are.” He also states that “[Trump] is being racist towards Africans” regarding the president’s complaints that there aren’t more immigrants from Europe.