Trump kicks journalist out of Oval Office over immigration questions
'I want them to come in from everywhere,' Trump said about immigrants, before a reporter's questions made him lose his temper
January 17, 2018
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday kicked a CNN reporter out of the Oval Office for quizzing him over the recent ‘sh**hole countries’ controversy.
Trump, according to sources, had questioned why the United States would want immigrants from “sh**hole countries” like Haiti and some African countries during a briefing on draft immigration legislation.
During a White House press conference on Tuesday, CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Trump whether he wanted more immigrants from Norway, to which Trump said that he wanted the US to draw immigrants from nations around the world.
“I want them to come in from everywhere,” Trump told reporters.
“Thank you, Jim. It's time to exit,” a female aide can be heard saying in a video of the incident.
But Acosta does not take the cue to stop asking questions and says, “Just Caucasian or white countries, sir? Or do you want people to come in from other parts of the world, people of colour..?”
Trump then looks at Acosta, points his finger at him and says: “Out.”
The reporter then took to Twitter to detail the incident.
“As I attempted to ask questions in Roosevelt Room of Trump, WH press aides shouted in my face to drown out my questions. I have never encountered that before,” Acosta wrote.
“What occurred reminded me of something I would see in a different country. Certainly not at the WH. Certainly not in the US,” he continued.
US Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said last week that Trump had repeatedly used the word “sh**hole” when speaking about African countries and the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Trump has denied using that language.
Trump’s comment about “immigrants from everywhere” is the opposite of his administration's immigration policies, which include a complete ban on several Muslim countries from entering the US.
