President Trump reportedly using the word “shithole” to describe the countries from which he’d like to see less immigration to the U.S. (read: Africa, El Salvador, and Haiti), drew more than a few people’s ire Thursday evening.
One especially fiery reaction came from counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd, a former CIA officer, who exclaimed live on CNN: “I’m a proud shitholer!”
Mudd, who said he is of Irish and Italian descent, explained: “Shitholers built this country 110 years ago. They were called ‘slopers’ and slant-eyes—Chinese people who built this country. Shitholers from Japanese internment camps stayed in those internment camps as American citizens. And that’s a legacy we bare shame for today. Shitholers who escaped Guatemala and El Salvador—civil wars that we participated in—built this country. I’ve worked for shitholers who’ve protected this country after 9/11. George Tenet is a first-generation Greek; I guess he is a shitholer. Jose Rodriguez was the head of counterterrorism at CIA; he’s a Puerto Rican. I guess he’s not welcome. I’m proud today. I’m proud to be a shitholer... Let’s stand against this and say it’s not about black people, and it’s not about white people from Norway. It’s about the people who built America and who we denigrated until we became ashamed and we realize that's inappropriate. And we’re learning the lesson again today.”
He later told host Don Lemon, who is black: “So let’s be clear: a white honky from Norway can come here but a black dude from Haiti can’t. What does that tell you in an America that in one generation called you a ‘nigger’? What does that tell you, Don?”
