Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen does not see skin color. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had the misfortune to appear at a Senate hearing in the immediate aftermath of a furor over a reported racist remark by President Trump at a meeting she attended. Nielsen’s strategy was to deny everything. Nielsen told the senator she had no recollection one way or another as to whether Trump disparaged the population of an entire continent in shockingly gross terms.

“There was a lot of rough language by a lot of people in the room …” she testified. “What I was struck with, frankly, as I’m sure you were as well, was just the general profanity that was used in the room by almost everyone.” So basically the meeting like some saloon scene in Deadwood. There were a lot of really bad words, but it might have been Trump making generalizations about black people, might have just been Al Swearengen, nobody can say for sure.

Nielsen did concede that Trump had nice things to say about Norway and its prospective emigrants to the United States. Senator Patrick Leahy asked Nielsen whether Norway was predominantly white. Nielsen professed total ignorance:

LEAHY: "Norway is a predominantly white country, isn't it?"



NIELSEN: "I actually don't know that, sir." (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/SMIFgFe7B3 — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 16, 2018

She could have gone with, “Race is just a social construct, Senator.” Instead her ignorance extends to the question of what color skin most Norwegians have.