Trump Tries to Spin Comments About "Shithole Countries"; Senator Confirms Trump's Remark About "Shithole Countries"; Republican Leaders Silent Over Trump's "Shithole" Slur.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: "OutFront next. The Trump denial that doesn't add up. The President trying to spin his racist comments, but is anyone buying it? Plus, deafening silence. Where is the Republican leadership on Trump's vile comments? And breaking news this hour, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting a Trump lawyer paid $130,000 to a porn star to stop her from discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, something that White House and the woman are denying tonight. Let's go "OutFront." Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. "OutFront" tonight, the height of hypocrisy. President Trump honoring Martin Luther King Jr. today, less than 24 hours after his racist remarks on the Oval Office when he said a host of countries where black and Hispanic people live are "s-hole" countries. The President refusing to answer reporters questions about the comments, which has frankly rocked his presidency. Here he is.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, did you refer to African nations, did you use the word "shithole" to refer to African nations?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, are you a racist?</s>BURNETT: It's incredible to think that that happened in real life. Now, the President is trying to pretend that there's nothing to see here and I'm going to get to that in a second because today, people in the room confirmed what Trump said. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was in the room, told his fellow Republican Senator Tim Scott that the President's remarks as reports are "Basically accurate." Graham also confirming in a statement that he confronted the President about them saying, "I said my peace directly to him, the President, yesterday. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel." And here is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin who was also at the meeting,</s>SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: We've seen the comments in the press. I've not read one of them that's inaccurate. To know surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.</s>BURNETT: Yes. Senator Durbin says the President did get on Twitter 15 hours after the news first broke and frankly after spending the night trying to tweet about other completely unrelated things. We can expect on 15 hours later to try to muddy the water. Tweeting in part, "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used." And then there was another tweet where he tried to say that he didn't really say all that about Haiti specifically. The operative line in this tweet, "Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings. Unfortunately, no trust." Again, as we just pointed point, a Democrat and Republican in the room have both confirmed his statements and Republican Senator Jeff Flake shot down the President's assertion in the tweet that his language was tough, but no more by tweeting, "The words used by the President as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance were not tough. They were abhorrent and repulsive." Notice Flake says those in attendance, plural. Now, sources telling Jake Tapper that Trump referred to people coming from Africa as coming from "s-hole" countries, but did not refer to Haiti specifically as a an "s-hole" country, That sources says Trump ask why the U.S. needs more Haitians and pushed to take them out of the immigration deal. OK. When this is the best offense you can mount you have a problem. No matter how the story is spun, nothing changes the fact that Trump's comments were racist. His own spokesperson didn't deny anything that was reported, including the fact that s-hole countries included Haiti and El Salvador. But frankly, we don't need to rely on Dick Durbin or Lindsey Graham or anybody else. Because we know the President uses hateful disparaging and racist language that's why this is such a huge story. He does it so often and so consistently that it is now impossible to deny that there isn't a problem.</s>TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people. I think Islam hates us. Look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest? We're building a wall. He's a Mexican.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are saying he can't do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?</s>TRUMP: No, I don't think so at all. You had some very bad people in that group but you also had people that were very fine people. On both sides. Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, they say we want deal. You were here long before any of us were here. Although, we have the representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago they call her Pocahontas. Pocahontas. Pocahontas. Pocahontas. Pocahontas. Pocahontas. I call her Pocahontas. So that's an insult to Pocahontas. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. People have birth certificates. He doesn't have a birth certificate. Now, he may have one but there's something on that birth -- maybe religion, maybe it says he's a Muslim.</s>APRIL RYAN: Are you going to include the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congress --</s>TRUMP: Well I would. I'll tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no. I'm just a reporter</s>TRUMP: Are they friends of yours? Set up the meeting.</s>RYAN: I know some of them.</s>TRUMP: Maybe we say politically correct or not politically correct, they don't look like Indians to me and they don't look Indians to Indians.</s>BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny is out front tonight in Mar-a-Lago in Florida where the President landed just moments ago. Jeff, what is the President's thinking on this controversy right now?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, good evening. The President is beginning a three-day weekend here. And there's no question he will do as he usually does, talk to friends, talk to old friends and advisers throughout the weekend. And so far we are told that the President was spending last night after this first broke, talking to friends to see how this was playing. He was not apologizing at all. In fact it wasn't until about 12 hours after it was first reported, a little bit more than that, he said he did not say those language, I said that word specifically, but it was certainly not a full-out denial. The White House has still not denied that he said those words, at least officially. But, Erin, we do know that the President believes that this is playing just fine with his base. Never mind all the criticism from Republican Speaker Paul Ryan he called it very disappointing. Other rank and file Republicans in the House and Senate also said it was very disappointing. And the reason that Paul Ryan, the speaker, said it's disappointing, Erin, the mid term election season already bruising for Republicans. Never mind the base. Yes, they will be with President Trump. The question is independent voters and others who simply are turned off by this kind of language. But the bigger point on all of this tonight, Erin, as we end a very, again, tumultuous week at the White House, Republicans and Democrats appeared to reaching a deal on Dreamers. That of course it was something that is expected to keep the government open, pass the deadline next week. That deal, in peril tonight because of the President's language in the Oval Office. So when he returns to Washington on Monday, they have to get back to work on this deal. We'll see if it can be repaired. That is the biggest consequence of it all, Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Jeff Zeleny. And "OutFront" tonight, the President and CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson. And, Derrick, I appreciate your time tonight. You heard Jeff Zeleny, the President, you know, having those conversations last night, not apologizing at all as he describes it. Another source is telling CNN the President loves the controversy over the s-hole remark. And you heard Zeff Zeleny, the President believes and the White House believes these comments are going to play just fine with the Trump base. What's your reaction?</s>DERRICK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: Well, the Trump base is not enough to win elections. For African-Americans, it is unfortunate to hear this type of language. It is the language of the '50s and '60s. It's the language of a Ross Barnett and a George Wallace but it's also the language that's going to energize the base for these midterm elections. Unfortunately, much of what he's doing is also serving as a distraction to some of the administrative policies that he's advancing, the nominees to the federal court. So we have to be careful not to get so caught up in his words. We know he's a racist. He demonstrated that, just like the package you just showed previously. Now the real question is, how do we stop some of the bad policy that's coming down the line and how do we energize our base to get out to vote this cycle?</s>BURNETT: Now, I want to be clear. You just said we know he's a racist. But I just want to make sure I give you a chance to be very clear on this that the President, as you know, Derrick, had said so many times he's the "Least racist person." You know, today, he ran away when asked him the question twice, if he's a racist. But he said he is the least racist person. I just want to play a clip from an interview that he did with our Don Lemon during the campaign period.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Are you racist?</s>TRUMP: I am the least racist person that you have ever met. I am the least racist person.</s>LEMON: Are you bigoted in any way?</s>TRUMP: I don't think so. No. I don't think so.</s>LEMON: Islamaphobe?</s>TRUMP: I'm the person -- no, not at all.</s>BURNETT: Derrick, you just told me we know he's a racist. What's your reaction when you hear that? The least racist person that you've ever met.</s>JOHNSON: Earlier this week, we've just seen Donald Trump sit in a meeting with legislators, talking about DACA. And in that meeting, he changed positions five times or more. I don't think he knows his statement from minute to minute. He's a racist both in his actions and his words. The real question we have as American citizens, what are we going to do about it? How we're going to make sure we minimize the impact of his policy decisions and how are we going to show up doing this midterm elections to ensure that his beliefs are not implemented in public policy.</s>BURNETT: Part of the issue, though, is that there are people out there who are not saying what you were saying. And some of them -- let me just play one of them for you. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nephew, he was actually at the White House today for the event honoring MLK. He met with the President. Here's what he told our Jim Acosta right afterwards.</s>ISAAC NEWTON FARIS, JR, NEPHEW OF MLK JR. ATTENDED WHITE HOUSE EVENT TODAY: I don't think that President Trump is a racist in the traditional sense as we know in this country. I think President Trump is racially ignorant or racially uninformed. But I don't think that he's a racist in the traditional sense.</s>BURNETT: Is this part of the problem? I mean, comments like that, which come off as excusing or explaining what he is saying?</s>JOHNSON: Well, you know, every citizen, there -- we're all entitled to our opinions.</s>BURNETT: Yes.</s>JOHNSON: I don't understand what it means to be not being racist in the traditional sense. A racist is a racist in all sense of the word. And how one displays their racism is a problem no matter what. The real fact here is we are facing a midterm elections, African-Americans will be energized to make a difference. But it's not about Donald Trump at this juncture. We know who he is. It's all about the individuals who are silent around this issue, who refuse to say what he is doing is wrong, and stand up against this.</s>BURNETT: So let me talk about a few of those people because I know you just heard -- we've shown multiple people in the meeting by name are confirming what the President said. Yet, there are two other Republicans who were also there, Senator Tom Cotton and Senator David Purdue, and they're punting. They, in fact, have issued a statement there. And it says, in part, "We do not recall the President saying these comments specifically." We do not recall. Well, first of all, that seems absurd on its phase, OK? But my point to you is, why are they silent, why are they seemingly scared of the President?</s>JOHNSON: Well, many in the Republican Party, they're using this opportunity to advance a policy agenda that's much more conservative, is redistribution of the wealth to high income individuals. And President Trump served as the perfect distraction in terms of the policy positions that they are supporting. So I'm not surprised that they are saying this. But the real issue here is all individual with name will be on the ballot in November, and doing a primary election, what's going to happen to them? It is our goal as associates to make sure that African-Americans and many others turn out and vote and really display their opinion about what's taking place in this country.</s>BURNETT: Derrick Johnson, I appreciate your time. Thank you.</s>JOHNSON: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: Derrick Johnson, the CEO of NAACP And next, Republican leadership, virtually silent on Trump's racist comments. Mitch McConnell, where are you? Plus, we know who President Trump doesn't want in the United States. So who should be allowed into this country? At the heart of this is a really crucial policy question. And breaking news, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting on an alleged payment to a porn star by President Trump's lawyer. Was it intended to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with the President? The White House and the porn star denying the report.