CNN: Maybe Trump Didn’t Actually Say What We’ve Been Saying He Said

For the past half-a-day or so, the media and their fanclub has been lathered up by the story that President Trump referred to some countries using the technical term-of-art “shithole.”

I’ve been laughing at the number of people who are now trying to convince me that neither Haiti nor El Salvador qualify for that term:

you mean… a shithole https://t.co/LFHv8C12VX

— sarah (@therightsarah) January 12, 2018

Wow, sounds like the country is kind of a… what’s the word I’m looking for… shit-something. https://t.co/0dNnivFQfg

— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) January 12, 2018

Leftists, 2017: “Norway has a great society.”
Trump, 2018: “Norway has a great society.”
“RACIST!”
Leftists, 2018 (yesterday): “You can’t send people back to Haiti! It’s horrible there!”
Trump, 2018 (today): “Haiti is a horrible place to live.”
“RACIST!”

— Henry (@HMSPitts) January 12, 2018

Whatever. And the alacrity with which the media and their fanclub translated a statement of the obvious into something racist is simply another marker of lack of seriousness that has permeated the media since around July 2016.

I’ll strongly disagree with my friend Erick Erickson when he writes I Would Rather the Poor From Africa Than the Rich From Norway. I think this sounds nice but it is wrongheaded. People don’t immigrate alone. They bring their culture with them. That is why we have “Little Italy” and “Chinatown” and “Koreatown” and, if you are Jesse Jackson, “Hymietown.” People from failed states, particularly adults from failed states, also bring with them the coping behaviors and survival strategies that allowed them to stay alive. Those artifacts are implanted within that community. If you doubt me, look at Sweden and Germany and France and the UK. For all their failings, a rich Dane is going to be acquainted with how to get by in a pluralistic society, he’s going to understand the rule of law, he’s going to be familiar with the basic civic structures and concepts that are based in the European Enlightenment which, like it or not, is the foundation for the U.S. Constitution, our juris prudence, and our civil society. And a rich Dane is very unlikely to become a ward of the state. The fact that people from failed states and semi-functioning Third World states want to come to America does not mean that letting them come here is a good idea.

Having said, the controversy today is now whether Trump actually made the remarks. The problem is that there is a) no record of the event and b) no one on the record saying this. But, as we’ve seen from the Michael Wolff book and all of his supporters, truth is actually irrelevant

This is the official response:

Now CNN’s Jake Tapper has weighed in. He thinks Trump has a point:

Did he say it or not? I don’t know. I don’t care. If he didn’t say it, he’s owed an apology. If he did say it, so what? He was right.

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