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DHS Secretary Tells Congress She Never Heard Trump Refer to 'S***hole' Countries

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WASHINGTON – The game of 'he said, she said' continues in the nation's beltway. Did President Donald Trump use the term "s---hole" in a meeting last week while describing some African countries and Haiti?

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said she did not hear the president use that word, although she did say he used "tough language."

Nielsen also said "other congressmen" in the meeting used tough language when they were negotiating with Mr. Trump.

"I actually was struck more by the fact that the conversation… had gotten to a place where many people in the room were using inappropriate language in the Oval Office," she said, noting she remembered "specific cuss words being used by a variety of members."

However, Sen. Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who has alleged that Trump did indeed use the vulgarity, noted he himself did not use foul language during the meeting, and Nielsen agreed.

The DHS chief was then asked whether it was possible Trump used the term even though she didn't hear it. "Anything is possible," Nielsen replied.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Durbin noted that Nielsen arrived late to the Jan. 11 meeting. He asked her to describe what the president said about immigrants from African countries.

Niesen said Trump told the group, "He'd like to move away from a country-based quota system to a merit-based quota system."

"How did he characterize those countries?" Durbin asked. 

"I don't specifically remember categorization of countries in Africa," Nielsen responded.

Durbin asked Nielsen to describe what Trump said about immigrants from European countries like Norway.

Nielsen said, "I heard him repeating what he had said in a meeting before – that they are industrious, that they are a hard-working country, they don't have much crime there, they don't have much debt."

Then, Durbin pressed Nielsen to clarify recent comments that Trump had used "strong language" in the meeting.

"Ah, let's see," Nielsen said. "Strong language, there was — I apologize, I don't remember a specific word." 

But she said that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., used "tough language" in response to Trump.

Nielsen said that Trump was frustrated that lawmakers were proposing to pay only part of the money for border wall construction and asked whether all of the money could be appropriated up front. 

Nielsen's answers drew criticism later during the hearing from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who called it "unacceptable" that she could not "remember the words of your commander in chief."

"Your silence and your amnesia is complicity," Booker charged.

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