Even the specific timeline of events surrounding the "shithole countries" comment undermine Trump's claim this morning that he never made the comment. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," Shah said. According to Collins, Trump spent Thursday evening making calls to friends and associated to gauge how they believed the "shithole countries" story was playing. Why, rather than doing that, would they issue a statement that sought to own his "shithole countries" comment and make political hay out of it? In fact, everything we know from even the most surface-level study of Trump's 71 years on Earth suggests he absolutely, 100% said "shithole countries."

Source: CNN January 12, 2018 17:06 UTC