“Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities”

Developments on Day 358 of the Trump Administration:

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Multiple Sources Talk of Trump’s Affair

Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen reportedly arranged a $130,000 payment to a porn star, a month before the 2016 election, so she would not go public about claims of sex with Trump.

Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, was discussing an appearance on ABC TV’s “Good Morning America” and an article in the online magazine Slate.

Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, said on Friday that Clifford told him of an affair with Trump after meeting him at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament. She said Cohen agreed the $130,000, but she was tempted to go public because the lawyer was late in making the payment.

Trump married his third wife Melania in January 2005. Their son Barron was born in March 2006.

Cohen said on Friday, “These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.” He released a statement, dated January 10, in which Clifford supposedly declared that allegations that “I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Mr. Trump many, many, many years ago” are “completely false”. The statement also said, “Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.”

Around the same time that Clifford was talking to ABC and Slate, former Playboy model Karen McDougal sold exclusive rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump to American Media Inc., the company that owns The National Enquirer. However, the Enquirer never published McDougal’s account.

Porn star Jessica Drake said in late October 2016 that Trump had kissed her without consent and offered her $10,000 for sex. Like Clifford, she met Trump at the 2006 American Century Celebrity Golf Championship.

The Daily Beast wrote on Friday that it also had been in protracted talks with Clifford about an interview after three sources, including fellow porn star Alana Evans, told the site about the Trump-Clifford relationship. Clifford ended commmunications on November 3, 2016, five days before the election.

Evans said Clifford confided in her:

She tells me, “All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.” I was like, “Oh, I really didn’t need to hear that!” Then she said he offered her keys to his condos in Florida, and I was like, “Wow, guess you had a good night”, and that was the last we ever spoke of it.

Senator: Trump Repeatedly Spoke of “Shithole Countries”

Knocking back Donald Trump’s denial, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois says Trump referred on several occasions to Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa as “shithole countries” during a meeting between the President and both GOP and Democratic Senators on immigration on Thursday.

Durbin said on Friday that Trump “erupted” at several points during the meeting and “said things which were hate-filled, vile, and racist”:

The White House did not deny Trump’s remarks, but Trump did on Friday in a series of tweets while refusing to apologize and blaming Democrats:

However, more accounts of the meeting not only point to Trump’s racist language but also to pushback from Republicans as well as Democrats.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said,” America is an idea, not a race”, and claimed diversity as a strength rather than a weakness.

Graham added that he was a descendant of immigrants who came to the US from “shithole countries with no skills”.

Still, other GOP Senators defended Trump. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who were both at the meeting, insisted that Democrats were acting dishonorably and said they could not remember whether Trump used the derogatory words:

President Trump brought everyone to the table this week and listened to both sides, but regrettably, it seems that not everyone is committed to negotiating in good faith.

In regards to Senator Durbin’s accusation, we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically, but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest.

Botswana Government to US: Do You Think We’re a Shithole?

Amid the responses to Trump’s remarks, with US Ambassadors being summoned by host governments, the press statement of the African nation of Botswana stands out:

The Botswana Government has… enquired from the US Government through the ambassador, to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a “shithole” country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US, and also that some of Botswana may wish to visit the US.

The African group of ambassadors to the UN have demanded a retraction and an apology.

A spokesman for the UN Human Rights Commission denounced “the shocking and shameful comments”: