NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 7A
King’s kids criticize Trump, decry racism on holiday
By JONATHAN LANDRUM JR.
Associated Press
Phil Skinner/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King speaks during the Martin Luther King, Jr. annual
commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Monday.
Trump goes after the Dem who surfaced immigration remark
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)
— President Donald Trump turned
his Twitter torment Monday on the
Democrat in the room where immi-
gration talks with lawmakers took a
famously coarse turn, saying Sen.
Dick Durbin misrepresented what he
had said about African nations and
Haiti and, in the process, undermined
the trust needed to make a deal.
On a day of remembrance for
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump
spent time at his golf course with no
public events, bypassing the acts of
service that his predecessor staged in
honor of the civil rights leader on the
holiday. Instead Trump dedicated his
weekly address to King’s memory,
saying King’s dream and America’s
are the same: “a world where people
are judged by who they are, not how
they look or where they come from.”
That message was a distinct coun-
terpoint to words attributed to Trump
by Durbin and others at a meeting last
week, when the question of where
immigrants come from seemed at the
forefront of Trump’s concerns. Some
participants and others familiar with
the conversation said Trump chal-
lenged immigration from “shithole”
countries of Africa and disparaged
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
President Donald Trump with first
lady Melania Trump waves Monday
as he returns from Mar-a-lago to
the White House in Washington.
Haiti as well.
Without explicitly denying using
that word, Trump lashed out at the
Democratic senator, who said Trump
uttered it on several occasions.
“Senator Dicky Durbin totally
misrepresented what was said at the
DACA meeting,” Trump tweeted,
using a nickname to needle the Illi-
nois senator. “Deals can’t get made
when there is no trust! Durbin blew
DACA and is hurting our Military.”
He was referring to the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals
program, which protects young
people who came to the U.S. illegally
as children. Members of Congress
from both parties are trying to strike
a deal that Trump would support to
extend that protection.
Durbin said Monday the White
House should release whatever
recording it might have of the meeting.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham
of South Carolina, one of the six
senators in the meeting with Trump on
Thursday, supported Durbin’s account.
As well, Durbin and people who were
briefed on the conversation but were
not authorized to describe it publicly
said Trump also questioned the need to
admit more Haitians. They said Trump
expressed a preference for immigrants
from countries like Norway, which is
overwhelmingly white.
Republican Sens. David Perdue of
Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas,
who also attended, initially said they
did not hear Trump utter the word in
question, then revised their account
to deny he said it at all. Trump said
Sunday: “I’m not a racist.”
Durbin addressed reports that
Trump might have said countries
of Africa were “shithouse” nations
instead of “shithole” ones — and that
such a distinction might have given
Trump’s defenders a narrow out to
dispute reports of the meeting.
California highway to stay shut another week
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
Crews working around the
clock cleared boulders, trees
and crushed cars from all
lanes of U.S. 101, but Cali-
fornia officials said Monday
the key coastal highway
would remain closed for
another week after being
inundated during mudslides
that killed 20 people.
Much of the water on the
highway near the devastated
town of Montecito had
receded, allowing workers
to use bulldozers and other
heavy equipment to push
away solid debris that was
still several feet deep.
“It is not until you can see
the damage with your own
eyes that you can come to
understand the magnitude
of the incident, the response
that is necessary, but most
importantly the impact to
the citizens and families of
Santa Barbara County,” said
Jim Shivers, a spokesman for
the California Department of
Transportation.
The number of people
missing in the mudslides was
cut to three Monday after a
53-year-old man was found
safe. John “Jack” Keating
was located in Ventura with
his dog Tiny, Santa Barbara
County sheriff’s spokes-
woman Kelly Hoover said.
Keating, a transient, was
not in the flood zone during the
storm, as was feared, she said.
Those still missing are
Faviola Benitez Calderon, 28;
John “Jack” Cantin, 17; and
2-year-old Lydia Sutthithepa.
Officials were aiming to
reopen U.S. 101 on Jan. 22,
nearly two weeks after it was
shut down when lanes became
a river of muck, Shivers said.
The mudslides were trig-
gered Jan. 9 by a powerful
storm that swept in from the
Pacific and dumped a deluge
on mountain slopes that had
been burned bare by a huge
wildfire in December.
Search and rescue opera-
tions ended over the weekend,
and authorities transitioned
to recovery. The move allows
officials to release resources
that were no longer needed
and slow the search to a safer
pace, Santa Barbara County
Sheriff Bill Brown said.
At least 65 homes were
destroyed and more than 460
others were damaged. The
name of each victim was read
aloud during a vigil Sunday
night attended by thousands
of people.
“We all know someone
who has been affected by
this,” said Bethany Harris,
who brought her two young
sons to mourn. “We will heal
together.”
Crews have made it a
priority to clear debris basins
and creek canals before
another rainstorm hits the area.
Long-range
forecasts
gave the crews less than a
week before the next chance
of rain — and potential new
mudslides — although the
precipitation was expected to
be light. Another storm system
could move in a few days later.
With U.S. 101 shut down,
Amtrak added additional cars
to its route between Santa
Barbara and points east as
travelers increasingly relied
on rail service to get around
the closure.
California teen leads deputies to parents’ house of horrors
PERRIS, Calif. (AP) — A
17-year-old girl called police
after escaping from her fami-
ly’s home where she and her
12 brothers and sisters were
locked up in filthy condi-
tions, some so malnourished
officers at first believed all
were children even though
seven are adults.
The girl, who was so small
officers initially believed
she was only 10, called 911
and was met by police who
interviewed her and then
went to the family home
in Perris, about 70 miles
southeast of Los Angeles.
They found several children
shackled to their beds with
chains and padlocks in dark,
foul-smelling surroundings,
according to the Riverside
County Sheriff’s Department.
The children, ages 2 to
29, “appeared to be malnour-
ished and very dirty,”
according to a press release
announcing Sunday’s arrest
address
as
Sandcastle Day
School, where
David Turpin
is listed as
principal. In the
2016-17 school
year it had an
enrollment of
six with one
student in each
of the fifth,
David Allen Turpin Louise Anna Turpin sixth,
eighth,
ninth, 10th and
of the parents. “The victims
12th grades.
were provided with food and
Neighbors said they
beverages after they claimed were stunned by the arrests.
to be starving.”
Andrew Santillan, who lives
David Allen Turpin, 57, around the corner, heard
and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, about the case from a friend.
each were held on $9 million
“I had no idea this was
bail and could face charges going on,” he told the
including torture and child Press-Enterprise of River-
endangerment.
side. “I didn’t know there
It wasn’t immediately were kids in the house.”
known if they had attorneys.
Other neighbors described
State Department of the family as intensely
Education records show the private.
family home has the same
A few years ago, Robert
Perkins said he and his
mother saw a few family
members constructing a
Nativity scene in the Turpins’
front yard. Perkins said he
complimented them on it.
“They didn’t say a word,”
he said.
The Turpins filed for
bankruptcy in 2011, stating
in court documents they
owed between $100,000
and $500,000, The New York
Times reported. At that time,
Turpin worked as an engineer
at Northrop Grumman and
earned $140,000 annually
and his wife was a home-
maker, records showed.
Their bankruptcy lawyer,
Ivan Trahan, told the Times
he never met the children
but the couple “spoke about
them highly.”
“We remember them as a
very nice couple,” Trahan said,
adding that Louise Turpin told
him the family loved Disney-
land and visited often.
ATLANTA — Two of
Martin Luther King Jr.’s
children and the pastor of
his historic Atlanta church
marked the national King
holiday Monday with sharp
denunciations of President
Donald Trump, focusing
on disparaging remarks
he is said to have made
about African countries and
Haitian immigrants. Angry
pro-Haiti protesters and
Trump supporters yelled at
each other from opposite
sides of a street near the
president’s Florida resort.
At gatherings across the
nation, activists, residents and
teachers honored the late civil
rights leader on what would
have been his 89th birthday
and ahead of the 50th anni-
versary of his assassination in
Memphis, Tennessee. But in
the many speeches delivered
from pulpits and podiums
across the country, Trump’s
name came up nearly as often
as King’s, with speakers
indicating that his turbulent
presidency was undermining
efforts to ease racial tensions
in the U.S.
The president spent his first
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
in office buffeted by claims
that during a meeting with
senators on immigration last
week, he used a vulgarity to
describe African countries and
questioned the need to allow
more Haitians into the U.S.
He also is said to have asked
why the country couldn’t have
more immigrants from nations
like Norway.
In Washington, King’s
eldest son, Martin Luther
King III, criticized Trump,
saying, “When a president
insists that our nation needs
more citizens from white
states like Norway, I don’t
even think we need to spend
any time even talking about
what it says and what it is.”
He added, “We got to find
a way to work on this man’s
heart.”
In
Atlanta,
King’s
daughter, the Rev. Bernice
King, told hundreds of
people who packed the pews
of the Ebenezer Baptist
Church that they “cannot
allow the nations of the world
to embrace the words that
come from our president as a
reflection of the true spirit of
America.”
“We are one people,
one nation, one blood, one
destiny. ... All of civilization
and humanity originated from
the soils of Africa,” Bernice
King said. “Our collective
voice in this hour must always
be louder than the one who
sometimes does not reflect the
legacy of my father.”
Church pastor the Rev.
Raphael Warnock also took
issue with Trump’s campaign
slogan to “Make America
Great Again.”
Warnock said he thinks
America “is already great ...
in large measure because of
Africa and African people.”
Down the street from
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat
in Palm Beach, Florida, on
Monday, Haitian protesters
and Trump supporters yelled
at each other from opposing
corners. Trump was staying at
the resort for the Martin Luther
King Jr. holiday weekend.
Video posted by WPEC-TV
showed several hundred
pro-Haiti
demonstrators
yelling from one side of the
street Monday while waving
Haitian flags. The Haitians and
their supporters shouted “Our
country is not a shithole,” refer-
ring to comments the president
reportedly made. Trump has
said that is not the language he
used.
The smaller pro-Trump
contingent waved American
flags and campaign posters
and yelled “Trump is making
America great again.” One
man could be seen telling the
Haitians to leave the country.
Police kept the sides apart.
Trump dedicated his
weekly address to the nation,
released Monday, to King.
“Dr. King’s dream is our
dream, it is the American
dream, it’s the promise
stitched into the fabric of our
nation, etched into the hearts
of our people and written into
the soul of humankind,” he
said in the address, which he
tweeted to his followers. “It
is the dream of a world where
people are judged by who
they are, not how they look
or where they come from.”
The president’s remarks
appeared not to resonate
with the Rev. Al Sharpton,
who also used the holiday to
take aim at the racial rhetoric
Trump is said to have used.
“Trump Tower is in the
wrong state,” Sharpton told a
crowd of 200 at the National
Action Network in Harlem.
He said it was embarrassing
that Trump is from New
York. “What we’re going to
do about Donald Trump is
going to be the spirit of Martin
Luther King Day,” he said.
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