WASHINGTON — Republicans struggled to get their stories straight Tuesday as President Trump’s homeland security secretary became the latest influential Republican to offer an inconclusive version of a meeting in which Trump is said to have used vulgar remarks that have been criticized as racist.

Democrats accused Republicans of selective amnesia, as Kirstjen Nielsen testified under oath that she “did not hear” Trump use a certain vulgarity to describe African countries. “It was a meeting of 12 people. There was cross-talk,” she explained at a congressional hearing, but she didn’t “dispute the president was using tough language.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Nielsen said she did not hear Trump use a vulgarity during a White House meeting, but "what I was struck with frankly ... was the general profanity used in the room by almost everyone." Associated Press/Jose Luis Magana

Under persistent questioning, Nielsen said she didn’t recall the specific language used by Trump. “What I was struck with frankly, as I’m sure you were as well, was just the general profanity used in the room by almost everyone.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, angrily criticized Nielsen’s comments, telling her during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Your silence and your amnesia is complicity.”

Nielsen’s comments came five days after the president ignited what Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham termed an “s-storm” with his Oval Office remarks.

The White House has not substantively disputed accounts of the episode, in which Trump is said to have used the term “shithole” to describe African countries of origin for potential immigrants to the U.S. The revelations, semi-denials and continuing comments have cast a pall over the White House’s legislative agenda, brought the country closer to the brink of a government shutdown and sparked international outrage.

And with the midterm elections approaching, there are fresh fears among Republicans who were already anxious over the political climate going into November – and over Trump’s unpredictable actions.

Administration officials and lawmakers spent the holiday weekend debating the precise presidential vulgarity used, and moved to cast last Thursday’s White House meeting as a salty affair, with expletives flying in all directions.

The White House said Trump has no intention of apologizing.

“The president hasn’t said he didn’t use strong language, and this is an important issue,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “He’s passionate about it, he’s not going to apologize for trying to fix our immigration system.”

There is internal debate in the West Wing over whether Trump said “shithole” or “shithouse.” One person who attended the meeting told aides they heard the latter expletive, while others recalled the president saying the more widely reported “shithole,” according to a person briefed on the meeting but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Trump has not clarified to aides what he said, but told reporters Sunday night in Florida that comments attributed to him “weren’t made.”

A confidant of Trump told The Associated Press that the president spent Thursday evening calling friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction to his remarks. Trump wasn’t apologetic and denied he was racist, said the confidant, who wasn’t authorized to disclose a private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

White House officials tried to offer clarity on the two-hour period Thursday morning that saw Trump move from requesting a briefing on a potential immigration breakthrough to graphically rejection the agreement reached by Graham and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

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