SF Mission District residents respond to controversial Trump comments
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Thursday, President Donald Trump reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations with an expletive, comments he now vaguely denies.
Even most Republicans in the Bay Area who frequently defended Trump's actions couldn't on Friday.
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One of the most striking quotes came from a member of Congress who said, "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and much less in the White House."
Outraged but not surprised is how people in the predominantly Hispanic Mission District reacted to the president's derogatory remarks.
"I feel bad about him, how he acts, how he talks to us and everybody," Salvadoran immigrant Ana Solorzano said.
"He doesn't respect nobody. He respects only the money," another Mission District resident said.
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The Salvadoran Consulate in San Francisco sent a statement from its government: "El Salvador demands respect for the dignity of its noble and valiant people."
The "s***hole" comment included not only people from El Salvador, but also Haiti and some African nations.
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Many Republicans admit they too were surprised, even though they say racial remarks have been uttered by both sides in the past.
"Joe Biden said you couldn't enter a 7-Eleven without having an Indian accent," said Republican Party of San Francisco chairman Jason Clark. "So it just goes to show that racism is not isolated to one party, it's sort of an American tradition, unfortunately."
Rebecca Tinsley is a former BBC reporter who has spent years in war torn communities in Africa. "He doesn't realize that those countries are in a dire situation, precisely because the people running them are like him, they are autocrats, they don't care about democracy and they try to crush free speech," she said.
Some foreign leaders have taken to Twitter to say President Trump's comments were unworthy of a response.
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