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Article snippet: Democrats were less forgiving with their criticism and blasted Republicans for not going further to rebuke the White House. "This is racism, plain and simple, and we need to call it that. My Republican colleagues need to call it that too," Rep. MORE (D-Minn.) tweeted. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tweeted that Trump's comments "smack of blatant racism — odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy. He does not speak for me as an American." He echoed his comments on MSNBC. The White House issued a statement Thursday in response to the Post's story and did not deny Trump's use of the term "shithole" to describe Haiti and African nations. The president has been quoted in the past making disparaging comments about Haitian and Nigerian immigrants, comments that were swiftly denied and called "outrageous" by White House officials. “Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said Thursday. Trump's comments came amid a push for a bipartisan deal on immigration as lawmakers rush to meet a Jan. 19 deadline to fund the government. A bipartisan group of senators said Thursday they had clinched a deal to provide protections to young immigrants known as Dreamers, but faced pushback from Trump and GOP leadership. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a press briefing later in the day, "There has not been ... Link to the full article to read more