After he asked why America accepts immigrants from “shithole” countries like Haiti and El Salvador on Thursday, a debate erupted around the world about whether President Donald Trump is a racist.
Reporter April Ryan decided to just ask him herself.
Trump signed a proclamation to honor Martin Luther King Day on Friday, and a video shows Ryan asking him a couple of questions when he finished.
“Mr. President, are you a racist?” she asked. He ignored her, and she asked the same question again.
Ryan followed up with, “Mr. President, will you respond to these serious questions about your statement, sir?”
The video shows Trump saying nothing as he exits the room.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Trump used the word “shithole” during a meeting on immigration reform to refer to African countries and Haiti. In a tweet, Trump denied the report, saying “this was not the language used.”
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
Among others, United Nations spokesperson Rupert Coleville said Trump’s reported word choice to refer to nations of non-white people is unequivocally “racist.”
“If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States,” Coleville said. “There is no other word you can use but ‘racist’. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘s***holes,’ whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”
H/T the Cut