Rand Paul says it’s ‘unfair’ to call Trump racist
WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that it is "unfair" to call President Donald Trump a racist but said his recent insulting comments about immigrants from Haiti and African countries are unhelpful.
“I don’t think the comments were constructive at all, but I also think that, to be fair, we shouldn’t draw conclusions that he didn’t intend,” the Kentucky Republican said on "Meet The Press."
Paul defended the president as one of the financial backers of a medical trip Paul was part to offer eye care and surgeries to people in Haiti in 2015.
“I think it’s unfair to sort of paint him, ‘oh well, he’s a racist,’ when I know for a fact that he cares very deeply about the people of Haiti because he helped finance a trip where they would get vision back for 200 people in Haiti,” Paul said.
During a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers on immigration on Thursday, Trump reportedly questioned why the United States was accepting some immigrants from Haiti and nations in Africa — rather than allowing more immigrants from places like Norway, according to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was in the meeting. The president reportedly referred to African nations as “shithole countries.”
Trump denied saying anything derogatory during that meeting, writing on Twitter, “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.” He particularly defended his comments on Haiti.
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
“Some people in the media have gone completely bonkers” over the remarks, Paul said on Sunday.
“You can’t have an immigration compromise if everybody is out there calling the president a racist," Paul added.
