Scott Jennings is a CNN contributor and former special assistant to President George W. Bush. He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Shithole. Shithouse. WTF does it matter?

That's all I can really come up with watching people try to deny or redeem President Trump's reported comments, made in a bipartisan meeting in the Oval Office regarding a deal on immigration reform. Typically, you call the fire department when you see smoke, not days after your house has burned down.

Scott Jennings

This cleanup attempt seems like a singularly dumb way to try to move on. Clearly, the President said something like what has been reported. This is a distinction without a difference, and his allies attempting to relitigate it have damaged Trump even further.

The President's remarks were vile and hurt American interests at home and abroad, especially on the continent of Africa, where they are too important for the president to vocalize such views. We have troops fighting the war on terror in multiple African countries , as the President painfully knows, and we are battling the Chinese government for economic influence there as well (a battle some people think we are losing after years of gains started by President George W. Bush, which President Obama tried to sustain .)

Insulting Africa devalues the time, energy and resources the US government has deployed to save millions of lives and create a continent friendly to American interests. At the same time, President Trump is the only person who can sell the Republican base on whatever compromise comes forth on immigration policy and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

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