Find out how his comments were playing. One source says the president loves the controversy. Getting physical. Amid a swirl of questions about his Mental Fitness and seemingly unhealthy lifestyle, President Trump undergoes his first medical exam since taking office. Will he get a clean bill of health . And terror drones. Russia says its bases in syria were attacked by swarms of unmanned aerial drones armed with explosives. If terrorists now have these cheap, small and hard to detect weapons, how vulnerable are americans targets overseas and at home . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is cnn breaking news. Breaking news. After setting off a huge controversy with comments on immigrants widely condemned as racist and facing new questions about his Mental Fitness, President Trump has just been through his first medical exam since taking office. Were waiting for a statement from his physician. The president is now on his way to his florida resort, maralago. He leaves behind a mess. At a white house immigration meeting, the president rejected a bipartisan deal on the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and used vile and vulgar language, disparaging haitians and smearing some african nations with a disgusting slur. The president today issued a weak denial and two conservative allies strangely say they dont recall the slur, but democratic senator dick durbin says he heard it, calling the comments hatefilled, vile and racist. And republican senator Lindsey Graham says he confronted the president when he heard his ugly words. In fact, sources say the president spent the night asking people how his remarks were playing, and one says the president , quote, loves the controversy. Even as the president today paid tribute to Martin Luther king jr. , the shockwaves are spreading. A haitian american republican congresswoman is demanding an apology from the president. A gop senator calls the president s language repulsive. Haitis government on this the an verse reiff eye of a catastrophic earthquake calls the president s words abhorrent and a United Nations official calls the president s remarks racist. Ill speak with congressman Hakeem Jeffries of the Judiciary Committee and our correspondents and specialists are standing by with full coverage. Lets begin with the truly extraordinary firestorm triggered by the president s remarks on immigration widely condemned as racist. Lets go straight to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Jim, the more we learn about this today, the worse it seems to get. Reporter it does get worse and worse, wolf. President trump declined to answer any questions today about his ugly racially charged comments, instead he offered a vague denial on twitter. But a top democrat who heard the remarks, as you said, says mr. Trump is not telling the truth. Today we gather in the white house to honor the memory of a Great American hero, the rev rend, dr. Martin luther king jr. Reporter it was a moment filled with sad irony. The same day the president signed a proclamation honoring civil rights hero Martin Luther king, mr. Trump was dodging questions about his own racially charged rhetoric. Mr. President , are you a racist . Reporter the president is running away from comments he made to a Bipartisan Group of lawmakers on immigration. The president said why are we having people from all of these shithole countries come here, wondering why more people couldnt come from norway. To protect haitian immigrants from deportation, saying why do we need more. Mlks nephew told cnn the president talked to him privately about the controversy. The president simply said to me im not the man being described in the media nsa do you believe him . I dont think President Trump is a racist in the traditional sense as we know in this country. I think President Trump is racially ignorant or racially uninformed, but i dont think hes a racist in the traditional sense. Reporter the president tried to deny he made the remarks, tweeting, never said anything derogatory about haitians, never said take them out, made up by dems. The ladies and gentlemen was tough but not the language used. What was really democratic senator dick durbin at the meeting says the president is not telling the truth. Said things which were hatefilled, vile and racist. He said haitians, do we need more haitians . And then he went on and we started to describe the immigration from africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure, thats when he used the vile and vulgar comments calling the nations they come from shitholes. Reporter two other republican senators tom cotton and david purdue issued a joint statement saying we dont recall the president saying these statements specifically. Lindsey graham who was also there all but confirmed the remarks, saying in a statement, diversity has always been our investment, not our weakness. The president has a long history of making racially insensitive remarks. From his comments on mexican immigrants. Theyre bringing drugs, crime, theyre rapists and some i assume are good people. Reporter to his defense of white supremacist protesters. We are a people reporter is in charlottesville last year. Very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people. On both sides. Reporter the president s latest comments raised questions about past white house denials that its immigration policy is racially motivated. Youre trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country. Jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things youve ever said. Reporter lawmakers worry the president s remarks could jeopardize reforms to the immigration system. I read the comments later last night. The first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful. Reporter now earlier today, the president underwent a physical exam over at walter reed. The white house is expected to release a statement on the president s checkup and hold a briefing next week. Across washington and much of the world, there is less concern about an update on the president s health and more the condition of his soul. Wolf . The fallout continues and escalates. Jim acosta at the white house, thank you very much. The president s remarks certainly have left many, many lawmakers stunned and outraged. Lets go to our Congressional CorrespondentSunlen Serfaty up on capitol hill. Whats the impact this is having on members up there . Reporter wolf, many members up here on capitol hill are deeply disturbed by these comments made by President Trump and some are even making formal moves to reprimand him. The Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond says that he will prepare a censure resolution for next week, which would amount to a formal statement of disapproval against President Trump, but meantime beyond the initial reactions and condemnations of lawmakers against those statements, the undercurrent of all of this is that congress is in the middle of a very complicated situation, and this just potentially complicates it even further. Theyre right in the middle of these delicate negotiations over daca, over immigration protections for d. R. E. A. M. Ers, and that that makes it even more delicate. You had one republican senator, susan collins, today saying rather bluntly it could hurt efforts for a bipartisan agreement and that is a sentiment shared on capitol hill by many congressional aides, the feeling or sentiment this potentially pours more fuel to the fire of a situation that was already very politically charged. Sunlen, this is also happening as congress careens towards another very, very serious deadline, right . Reporter thats right. They have just one week until january 19th to solve the Government Shutdown idea. The fact that theyve got to get a Government Spending bill passed in just one week. Democrats here, theyre under an extreme amount of pressure from their base, from their members, from many outside groups that want to make sure that they tie daca and the extensions for d. R. E. A. M. Ers, protections for d. R. E. A. M. Ers with the government funding bill. We heard speaker of the house paul ryan today say very clearly that republicans will not attach daca to the spending bill, but its unclear how he would be able to get the votes for that within his own party and very unclear where daca negotiations go next. Wolf . All right. Sunlen, thanks very much. Sunlen serfaty up on capitol hill. Joining us now, democratic congressman Hakeem Jeffries of new york. Hes a member of the Judiciary Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me on, wolf. Describe your initial reaction, if you can, when you first learned that the president of the United States made these racist, inflammatory remarks about people from african countries. Well, i was deeply saddened for our country and what it means to have a commander in chief, who would conduct himself once again in such an irresponsible way, but unfortunately, wolf, i was not surprised. This a man who throughout his entire adult life has never hesitated to fan the flames of racial hatred in order to advance his own petty political, personal or professional objects. We know for five years he perpetuated the racist lie that barack obama was not born in the United States of america, as part of a malicious effort to delegitimize the nations first black president. He then rode that racist lie into the white house. He plays political footsie with people like david duke. He provided aid and comfort to neonazis and White Supremacists in the aftermath of charlottesville. He continues to embrace the altright, even though hes in the middle of a fake cat fight with steve bannon. And so its not surprising that this president would make such racially charged remarks in the oval office, but its sad for your nation. House democrats, your colleagues, say they will seek a formal resolution, a censure resolution against the president over these most recent comments. Do you support that effort . I absolutely support that effort. I was pleased to see that congressman Cedric Richmond, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would be leading that effort. Im just hopeful, wolf, that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will finally decide to put decency ahead of partisanship, to put love for country ahead of their love for their president and realize we are a separate but coequal branch of government. We dont work for donald trump, we work for the American People. And the American People want to see a country that moves together, embraces the gorgeous mosaic that is america. Out of many, one. E plurib e pluribus unum. Is something that the president is obviously unfamiliar with. Hopefully the United States house of representatives, republicans and democrats, will embrace the notion that were better off together and will denounce these vile statements by President Donald Trump as soon as we get back next woke. Do you think you have the votes to pass such a censure resolution . Well, thats not clear. One thing that is clear is that we should hear from some of the Republican House members who were in that oval office meeting. In particular, wolf, the number two house republican, majority leader kevin mccarthy, was in that meeting. What does he have to say about the vile and racist nature of Donald Trumps remarks . Is he troubled at all that the nations commander in chief, the leader of the free world, would characterize people from haiti and africa in such an ignorant fashion . By the way, wolf, this is another example of the fact that this president operates in a factfree zone. Immigrants from africa are amongst some of the most educated in the world. They have contributed in a mighty way to city after city across the United States of america, including in my own congressional district. It would be nice if the president once in awhile would actually Pay Attention to the reality on the ground. And haitians have contributed a great deal as well. Ill just tell you, two republican senators who were in the meeting, they issued a statement referring to senator durbins comments, the accusations levelled by senator durbin about these racist comments. They said, we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. That was senator cotton and senator purdue of georgia. You want to react to that, we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically . It kind of sounds looib like jeff sessions. I mean, lets think about this, wolf, youre in the oval office with members of the United States senate and members of the United States house of representatives. With the president of the United States of america. Talking about an incredibly important issue around the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and perhaps taking steps towards comprehensive immigration reform. He either used a racially inflammatory curse word to describe people from africa and or haiti or he didnt. But to say less than 24 hours that you do not recall whether the president said those words or not is an incredible copout. I would think that those two United States senators should step up one way or the other and either agree with the president , who said he didnt say those things, or acknowledge that he made a terrible mistake at minimum, demand that he apologize and figure out how we can move forward, if at all possible from this moment. In contrast to nose senators, r senator Lindsey Graham, he all but confirmed what senator durbin was saying. Lindsey graham said following comments by the president , i said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what i said and how i feel. Ive always believed that america is an idea not defined by its people but by its ideals. Strong words from tLindsey Graham. Youre pleased to see what he said. Lindsey graham i think has been a straight shooter throughout his time in the United States congress. Its also important note, wolf, that Lindsey Graham apparently had a conversation with senator tim scott, who has indicated that based on his communication with Lindsey Graham that the president s words as being described in the Public Domain were accurate. And that is just a terrible thing for this nation. We have to decide as a country that we are better than this, and its going to require people on the left, on the right, progressives and conservatives, democrats and republicans to speak up, to stand up and to denounce this vileness coming from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. As you know, the president did honor dr. Martin luther king jr. In the oval office today. He was joined by dr. Kings nephew, isaac Newton Ferris jr. Who later told cnn he doesnt think the president is racist, just, quote, racially ignorant and racially uninformed. What do you think of that analysis . Well, i mean, i think clearly the president has engaged in behavior that would be consistent with being at minimum a racial arsonist, fanning the flames of hatred to advance his own agenda, certainly on the campaign trail and increasingly as the president of the United States of america. I can understand why there is a reluctance amongst many americans, including members of congress, to characterize the president as a stone cold racist because you just dont want to conclude that the person leading our nation who was put in the office by maybe around 60 million americans is such an individual. But its going to be harder and harder for many of us not to draw the conclusion that he may, in fact, be a bigot if this type of behavior continues. Im hopeful hell learn from this moment and will dramatically change course. So youre not ready yet to label him a stone cold racist . No, my view is that my job as a member of the house of representatives is to continue to lay out the facts as it relates to not just his behavior as president or his behavior on the campaign trail, but to point things out like in the 1970s, you had the Trump Administration sued by the Nixon Justice Department for Racial Discrimination against black and latino housing applicants. Even in the 1980s, it was donald trump who led the lynch mob against the central park five, black and latino teenagers who were wrongfully charged, wrongfully convicted, wrongfully imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. The record continues to add up. He is the president of the United States of america. He needs to change course, but its going to become increasingly difficult, wolf, for us not to draw a troubling conclusion about who he is as an individual. Congressman, stand by. There is more we need to discuss. Ive got to take a quick break. Well resume our conversation right after this. woman one year ago today mom started searching for her words. And my brother ray and i started searching for answers. vo