Trump defends himself anew against accusations he is racist

President Donald Trump, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to members of the media as they arrive for a dinner at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
President Donald Trump, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks to members of the media as they arrive for a dinner at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - President Donald Trump is defending himself anew against accusations he is racist, this time after recent disparaging comments about Haiti and African nations.

"No, No. I'm not a racist," Trump said Sunday, after reporters asked him to respond to those who think he is. "I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you."

Trump also denied making the statements attributed to him, but avoided the details of what he did or did not say.

"Did you see what various senators in the room said about my comments?" he asked, referring to lawmakers who were meeting with him Thursday in the Oval Office when Trump is said to have made the comments. "They weren't made."

Trump stands accused of using "s---hole" to describe African countries during an immigration meeting with a bipartisan group of six senators. The president, in the meeting, also questioned the need to admit more Haitians to the U.S., according to people who were briefed on the conversation but were not authorized to describe the meeting publicly.

Trump said in the meeting that he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead.

The White House has not denied Trump said "s---hole," though Trump has already pushed back on some depictions of the meeting.

A confidant of Trump's told the Associated Press the president spent Thursday evening calling friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction to his remarks. Trump wasn't apologetic and denied he was racist, instead blaming the media for distorting his meaning, said the confidant, who wasn't authorized to disclose a private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the only Democrat at Thursday's meeting, said Trump had indeed said what he was reported to have said. Durbin said the remarks were "vile, hate-filled and clearly racial in their content." He said Trump used the most vulgar term "more than once."

Trump commented as Durbin was presenting details of a compromise immigration plan that included providing $1.6 billion for a first installment of the president's long-sought border wall.

Trump took particular issue with the idea people who'd fled to the U.S. after disasters hit their homes in places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti would be allowed to stay as part of the deal, according to the people briefed on the conversation.

When it came to talk of extending protections for Haitians, Durbin said Trump replied, "We don't need more Haitians.'"

"He said, 'Put me down for wanting more Europeans to come to this country. Why don't we get more people from Norway?'" Durbin said.

Republican Sens. David Perdue, of Georgia, and Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, who also attended the meeting, initially 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.

Perdue described as a "gross misrepresentation" reports Trump used the vulgarity. He said Durbin and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, were mistaken in indicating that was the case. Graham also attended the meeting.

"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."

Trump has defended himself against accusations of being a racist on numerous occasions, including during his insistence President Barack Obama was not American-born and after he opened his presidential campaign in 2015 by describing Mexicans as rapists and drug peddlers.

Word of Trump's comments threatened to upend delicate negotiations over resolving the status of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. Trump announced last year that he will end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, unless lawmakers come up with a solution by March. The program shielded these immigrants, often referred to as "Dreamers," from deportation and granted them permits to work.