Here's the GOP's ridiculous explanation for why Trump calling Africa a 'sh*t house' is not racist

Recently, some Republicans have tried to defend President Donald Trump's declaration that he wants fewer immigrants from "shithole" countries in Africa by saying the president actually referred to those countries as "shit houses."

Although critics have charged that this defense is essentially a distinction without a difference, it seems that Republican operatives have come up with a more nuanced context of what it means to live in a "shit house."

Scott Wong, a senior staff writer at The Hill, talked with some Republicans on Tuesday to get an explanation for why calling African countries "shit houses" is less offensive than calling them "shitholes."

"Some Rs say 'shithouse countries' refers to poor countries with no plumbing," Wong writes on Twitter. "Places where you have to walk out to the shithouse -- and therefore the phrase is NOT racist."

Wong's Twitter followers expressed incredulity that the GOP would really try to make this argument -- including one who said that it "requires such mental gymnastics that it should be on the cover of Wheaties."