Wow. When I started reading this, I was sure it was gonna be from one of Onionesque news parody sites along the lines of Broken Newz, the Borowitz Report, etc.
But nope. It's for real--this comes from the Washington Post (yes, I know, you can argue whether that's "real news" either, but that's another debate):
Lindsey Graham didn’t mean to suggest Mexico is a ‘hellhole’
In trying to explain the differences between the United States’ southern and northern borders, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) found himself forced to make clear that he meant Mexico no disrespect.
“Why is one [border] a problem and the other is not? Because Canada is a place where people like to stay,” Graham said. “We love to have them visit, they want to go home because it’s a nice place. But people coming across the southern border live in hellholes. They don’t like that. They want to come here. The problem is, we can’t have everybody in the world who lives in a hellhole coming to America.”
Yeah, somehow I don't think that's gonna help the GOP's image with Hispanics a whole lot.
Of course, after being reprimanded by Jeff Sessions--JEFF SESSIONS was the voice of tact here, people--Graham immediately tried to backpedal, with about the success you'd expect:
"I wasn’t slandering Mexico, I’m just talking about all the places people want to leave, for whatever reason.”
He wasn't slandering Mexico? Exactly which country
was he referring to that just happens to be immediately south of the United States??
Video at the link(couldn't embed it, but it's worth watching for the eye-rolling/jaw-dropping factor)
Update: Thanks to Angie in WA State for finding the embeddable YouTube video of Graham:
I should also note that yes, of course there's a certain kernal of truth to Graham's point that there's not too many people trying to enter the U.S. illegally from the Canadian side vs. the Mexican side, because Canada doesn't have most of the problems that Mexico does...but for heaven's sake, there's these things called DIPLOMACY, TACT and RESPECT that this jackass seems to be utterly lacking in. You don't just shrug off the entire region of Central America (and everyone who lives there) as a shithole (at least, you don't if you expect anyone from that region to ever support you).