Democratic Senator Cory Brooker has slammed the Department of Homeland Security’s secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for saying that she could not remember the president using the word “s***hole” to describe African countries.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Tuesday, Ms Nielsen testified under oath that she “did not hear” that language allegedly used by Mr Trump.
Senator Brooker told her that her “silence and amnesia” made her “complicit”.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
“The Commander in Chief, in an Oval Office meeting, referring to people from African countries and Haitians with the most vile and vulgar language. That language festers. When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power, it is a dangerous force in our country. Your silence and your amnesia is complicity,” he said.
“Tens of millions of Americans are hurting right now because they're worried about what happened in the White House. That's unacceptable to me.
“I've got a president of the United States, whose office I respect, who talks about the country's origins of my fellow citizens in the most despicable of manner. You don't remember. You can't remember the words of your commander in chief. I find that unacceptable.”
Ms Nielsen responded: “I would just like to say I do clearly abhor violence in all of its forms.”
