Martin Luther King Jr.’s children are criticizing President Trump on what would be the civil right’s activist’s 89th birthday over the president’s recent private comments referring to “shithole” countries.
“When a president insists that our nation needs more citizens from white states like Norway, I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is,” said King’s son, Martin Luther King III said Monday in Washington, according to the Associated Press. “We got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.”
King’s daughter Rev. Bernice King also told her Atlanta church that they “cannot allow the nations of the world to embrace the words that come from our president as a reflection of the true spirit of America.”
“We are one people, one nation, one blood, one destiny … All of civilization and humanity originated from the soils of Africa,” she said, per the AP. “Our collective voice in this hour must always be louder than the one who sometimes does not reflect the legacy of my father.”
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said on Friday, according to several people briefed on the meeting in which he said the comment, according to the Washington Post.
The president went on to say that the country should instead bring more people from countries like Norway. Some observers have called Trump’s remark “racist,” noting that Norway is predominantly white, while the countries he derided — such as Haiti and African nations — are not.
Trump denied using that quote the next day on Twitter, saying “the language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.”
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