President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that he is "not a racist," and denied making derogatory comments about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators in the Oval Office last week.

"No, no. I am not a racist," Trump said during a dinner photo opportunity with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in West Palm Beach, Florida. "I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you."

Asked about vulgar comments he reportedly made during the Oval Office meeting — including referring to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" — Trump denied making the remarks that have been attributed to him.

"Did you see what various senators in the room said about my comments? They weren’t made," he told reporters, presumably referring to two Republicans who said earlier Sunday that they had not heard the president make derogatory comments about Haiti and Africa during the meeting.

The denial follows several days of controversy over his reported "shithole" remark, which sparked widespread condemnation from foreign leaders and bipartisan criticism in the US.

Until Sunday, both the White House and Trump had stopped short of denying that the president had used the word "shithole" in his discussions with lawmakers, and several senators who attended the meeting have suggested that reports of the president’s comments were accurate.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who was in the room with Trump when he made the remark, said that Trump did use "vile, vulgar" language including the word "shithole."

"He said those hateful things, and he said them repeatedly," Durbin said Friday. Durbin’s account was later backed up by Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, who also attended the meeting, and by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who said that Trump’s words had been related to him after the meeting by those in attendance.