Haiti and Trump's Rhetoric

       By Florida Bill                       

                                                 No one knows for sure if President Trump characterized Haiti and other nations as "shithole countries."  He says that he did not, and several other persons including Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who were sitting near him when he spoke at a private meeting, agree he never used that unflattering epithet.
                                                 Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen joined Cotton and Purdue in stating that she never heard any inappropriate language used by the President.
                                                 The question of the President's description of Haiti and other struggling countries is dominating reports concerning a private meeting at the White House called to discuss DACA (Deferred Action for Children Arrivals) or dream children and the building of a border wall. Participating were congressional leaders and immigration officials. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a solution to protect the nearly 800,000 children brought into this country with their illegal immigrant parents.
                                               But no one seems to be focusing on whether or not anything substantive or new came out of the meeting, because the media could not resist the chance to bash the president for his purported offensive dialogue in a closed door meeting.  Some years ago, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who also  attended the meeting, described Haiti, a country which provides no sewage treatment for residents, as a "hellhole," a more refined way of calling Haiti a "shithole;" but he declined to confirm or deny what the President had said behind closed doors.
                                               Democrats all around contended that the bigoted Trump had referred to Haiti with the vulgar word, which was one of seven made famous by the late comedian George Carlin.   
                                                The "get Trump" media concentrated  almost exclusively upon the presidential language as told to them by Illinois' Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, who fought back tears in describing the President's  words as "vile, hateful and racist." 
                                                  Durbin contradicted the President and his colleagues as well as the homeland security secretary.  The president repeatedly referred to poor nations, principally Haiti, as "shitholes," he said.  Durbin is the assistant minority leader in the Senate and has been a senator since 1997, but he has a checkered history when it comes to telling the truth. 
                                                  Trump himself has denied any vulgarity.  He said that his language was "tough," but respectful for Haiti, one of the poorest nations on the planet with 60 per cent of its 10.8 million residents earning less than $900 annually, and where residents provide their own toilet facilities. 
                                                    Durbin established his reputation as a liar a few years ago when he posted a note on Facebook charging that a Republican lawmaker told President Obama during a private session he attended that "I cannot stand to even look at you."  The media loved it and exploded with accusations of GOP racism.  Unfortunately for them, Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, subsequently corrected the record, and put down the disingenuous Durbin.  "That never happened," Carney told reporters. 
                                                  In 2005, in a speech on the Senate floor, the duplicitous Durbin attacked President Bush as an endorser of torture in his role as commander-in-chief.  Durbin compared American soldiers guarding detainees at Guantanamo prison in Cuba to "Nazis, Soviet gulags and :Cambodia's Poi Pot."  He was accused of treason by Bush adviser, Karl Rove. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose son was a soldier serving in combat, demanded that the senator apologize to the nation. Eventually, Durbin returned to the Senate floor and said he was sorry for his anti-American comments, and regretted offending anyone.                                                                            In 2012, President Obama issued an executive order protecting DACA children from deportation, and he said in doing so that it was up to Congress to fashion an appropriate law dealing with these immigrants. Congress ignored the problem and Trump upon taking office a year ago, invalidated the overreaching and illegal Obama order and gave Congress until next March to fix the problem and protect the children, some of whom are serving in America's military. 
                                                  President Trump has said he favors protecting DACA children brought to America by parents who entered the country illegally, but only if Congress approves construction of a wall along the country's southern border. The wall was a key promise to citizens who supported his candidacy in 2016.  He vows repeatedly that he will keep that promise for a wall  which would extend for about 800 miles along the most penetrable sections of the border and would cost some $20 billion dollars. 
                                                   Unless there is border security, he has said, illegal immigration will continue and in 10 years there will be another million DACA children needing protection.   Amnesty for DACA will never be considered by this administration, Trump has said. 
                                                    As to Haiti and and other poor countries, Trump said that he is very much in favor of continued immigration, but that everyone that comes to America must come in legally and merit should be a factor.   Currently, there are some 11 million undocumented residents in the United States and that would include some 75,000 to 125,000 Haitians.   Census figures show there are about 400,000 Haitians residing legally inside the USA. 

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