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Faith Salie on when POTUS uses "$#!?hole" language

Faith Salie on Trump's potty mouth
Faith Salie on Trump's potty mouth 01:54

A word rarely heard in polite company ricocheted around the world this past week, attracting the notice of our Faith Salie:

I'm sorry to use this kind of language on "Sunday Morning," but I'm only quoting our president. This week, he reportedly called Haiti, El Salvador, and places in Africa "sh*thole countries."

On Friday, a few hours before signing a proclamation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mr. Trump offered a vague and confusing statement, saying his language was "tough" but "this was not the language used by me."

He did not explicitly deny calling these countries sh*tholes. 

The White House did not deny it, either.

Here's what we're left with, thanks to our President's "tough" talk: journalists on many networks, including this one, right now, uttering the phrase "sh*thole countries."

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CBS News

We heard it from the usually dulcet tones of NPR hosts, who'd probably prefer a euphemism like "fecal crater." 

Thanks to our President -- our president! -- that word is scrawled across screens for our children to read. It's like we're living in an episode of "South Park."

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Faith Salie. CBS News

What would Walter Cronkite have done? 

What is ANY polite, DECENT American to do? 

Here's a proposal.

If you're going to use derogatory, profane and arguably racist language to describe another country and its people, how about some ground rules:

  1. You have to be able to find it on a map and spell it as fast as you can say "sh*thole."  
  2. And as far as holes go, don't worry too much. In today's politics, this comment will be sucked into a bigger one: the news cycle black hole.

We'll be dealing with different crap by next week.

       
Also by Faith Salie: 

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