CNN’s John Berman reacted with consternation to reports that GOP lawmakers may be using a peculiar way to excuse President Donald Trump’s reported derogatory comments about people from Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African countries.

Though a bipartisan group of lawmakers have said that Trump referred to immigrants from those places as “people from shithole countries,” some GOP Senators — notably Tom Cotton and David Perdue — have messily denied the president made those comments.

And according to the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, White House sources are rejecting the reports by claiming the president actually said “shithouse” countries — something Rich Lowry also reported over the weekend.

“It all comes down to the difference between a hole and a house,” Berman explained on CNN, introducing Dawsey to discuss his reporting.

“So, Josh, I’m tempted to say that Republican senators Perdue and Cotton are going on TV denying the comments were said, and they’re hanging it on the difference between a ‘blank-hole’ and a ‘blank-house.'”

Berman was unconvinced by that distinction, exclaiming:

“One might reasonably ask, are you f-ing kidding me?”

Dawsey replied that his White House sources have not been denying the reporting, adding that this news cycle has not been generous to the Trump administration.

Berman pointed out that while some have disputed the exact wording the president used, “no one seems to be denying the sentiment expressed in your report, that [Trump] would rather have people from Norway.”

“You can say hole, you can say house, but the substantive difference is the kind of immigrants that the president prefers,” Dawsey concluded.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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