Botswana asks US for official answer: Are we a 'shithole' country?
- Botswana issued a strong rebuke to President Donald Trump's reported comments about Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries being "shithole countries."
- Its government summoned the US ambassador, seeking to clarify whether the US regards Botswana as a "shithole" country.
- Many supporters and critics swiftly condemned the president's comments, while some of his biggest supporters defended him.
The government of Botswana issued a blistering statement Friday in response to President Donald Trump's reported remarks about "shithole countries."
Botswana's Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation (MIAC) called on the US Ambassador to Botswana "to express its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by the President of the US..."
MIAC also asked the ambassador to clarify if the US regards Botswana as a "shithole" country, adding that Trump's comments were "highly irresponsible, reprehensible, and racist."
During a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on immigration Thursday, Trump criticized protections the US gives to immigrants from various underdeveloped countries, including Haiti, El Salvador, and some African countries.
"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to media accounts and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.
Trump has railed against the diversity visa lottery program and special temporary status protections that bring in at least 50,000 immigrants from around the world and allow them to reside in the US legally. His reported remarks took place in the context of a debate over the merits of those programs.
Botswana wasn't the only country to lash out against the president's comments. Paul Altidor, Haiti's Ambassador to the US, told an NBC News contributor that he and the Haitian government "vehemently condemn" Trump's statement.
"Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated," Altidor said, adding that Haiti's government also formally summoned a US official to explain the comments.
Trump's statement provoked a visceral response as observers around the world condemned it. The UN's Human Rights body said "there is no other word one can use but 'racist'" to describe it.
Some Trump supporters backed the president by arguing in defense of the spirit of what he was trying to say - that Americans do not benefit from taking in immigrants from third-world countries.
On Friday, Trump took to Twitter to defend using "tough" language, but said he "never said anything derogatory" about Haitians and suggested he should record future meetings with lawmakers.