WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump denied being a racist after a controversy sparked by comments attributed to him using the word "scum" to describe African countries.
Trump reportedly used the word last week at an Oval Office meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on immigration reform.
"I'm not racist, I'm the least racist I can ever meet," Trump said in response to a reporter's question.
This came during Trump's remarks on Sunday evening, before a group of White House correspondents at the Trump International Golf Club, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
This is the first time Trump has been directly accused of racism.
The controversy erupted after reports in American media reported that Trump wondered at the meeting: "Why do so many people come from these scum countries?"
Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator, accused President Trump of using "hateful, degrading and racist" language at the meeting.
But many top lawmakers attending the meeting, including Homeland Security Secretary Kerstgen Nielsen, said they did not recall that President Trump had said so.
But another Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, did not deny Trump's statement.
"After the president's comments, I said my opinion directly to him yesterday, the president and everyone who attended the meeting knew what I said and what I felt," Graham said.
The Organization of the African Union, representing African countries, called on the US president to apologize for the statements attributed to him, expressing "shock, panic and anger" at those statements.