Trump was wrong to say what he said. Durbin was wrong to reveal it.

President Trump’s “straight talk” that helped get him elected has proven to be detrimental to his leadership of the nation on multiple occasions. The latest “s***hole” incident may be the worst, but only because of Senator Dick Durbin. He, more than Trump, has hurt the nation dramatically.
Before we get into Durbin’s sins, let’s get one thing out of the way. President Trump absolutely did use the phrase, “s***hole countries.” We know this based upon the reactions of Republicans in the room at the time. Had he not said it, their reactions would have been unambiguous. They would have attacked Durbin as a liar, firing all weapons as a unified force declaring that Durbin was making up stories about the President. Instead, they’re all playing dumb:

Here's the dilemma of the GOP in a nutshell. It's not the type of comment that everyone with an (R) next to their name would forget, but they dare not go against their leader. Cowards and fools. https://t.co/QeDcpqmFRT pic.twitter.com/fBn1JYC7Pa

— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) January 12, 2018

I am not going to defend the President’s comments. He clearly shouldn’t have made them. However, comments like those made behind closed doors during extremely important negotiations that will affect hundreds of thousands of potential Americans directly and millions of Americans indirectly should not be revealed to the press. Here’s why:

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Durbin hurt America as a whole

Comments made behind closed doors are leaked for one of two reasons: to assist in negotiations or to score political points. When used to assist in negotiations, these “leaks” are often well-planned and strategic, done for the sake of applying pressure to the other side from the press and constituents. In most cases, this type of leak is appropriate.
The other kind of leak is what Durbin did, and by doing so he has harmed America as a whole for the sake of hurting the President and his party. Had he been in a room when President Obama made similar comments, he would not have leaked them. Guess what. I would speculate many if not most Republicans in that situation wouldn’t have leaked them, either. That’s not to say they put the country before their party any better than the Democrats, but that’s a line I can’t imagine very many of them crossing.
Durbin crossed that line. He took comments that paint the entire country through the President himself in a way that harms our ability to work with other nations. He wasn’t championing the nations Trump spoke out about. He had a single intention: harm.
Will this help with negotiations? Possibly, but at what cost?

The great political pedestal

One more note. Every President has feelings they have expressed in private that they wouldn’t be proud of if they were made public. Why? Because every President, as far as we know, has been human. Every human has spoken regrettably even if some don’t really feel the regret directly. Most of us don’t have private conversations leaked to the press.
Politicians need to be held to higher standards, but they should not be placed on pedestals. Again, I’m not defending Trump on this one, but mainstream media seems to believe Obama and possibly some of the presidents who preceded him never said anything inappropriate behind closed doors. They all have. The difference is nobody was in the room with them at the time who had the same single-mindedness towards political expediency as Durbin.
Trump is an idiot for saying it, but Durbin hurt America by revealing it. Which sin is worse? Who cares? It’s another unfortunate series of events that were sparked by a President who shouldn’t be there, an opposition party that will go as low as they possibly can to hurt him, and a mainstream media that eats it all up like ravenous wolves.