MSNBC contributor Bret Stephens admitted on Friday that some countries are “backward” but argued that it doesn’t mean the U.S. shouldn’t accept their immigrants.
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“The issue is not the word,” Stephens said of Trump’s alleged insistence that there are “shithole” countries. “The issue isn’t even saying that a lot of countries are poor and backward and have terrible problems.”
Stephens said that even though there are “desperate” and “backward” countries, the founding of the United States is based on the fact that immigrants can come to America and better themselves.
“The issue is the failure to understand that 99.9 percent of Americans came from desperate, backward places – -or what those countries were at the time — and the essence of America is this astonishing faith we have in ordinary human beings, poor human beings… to transform themselves and the world.”
“If you don’t believe that, you don’t believe in America,” Stephens concluded.