Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that while he hates “the concept” of letting refugees from the Middle East and north Africa into the US “on a humanitarian basis…you have to” on Tuesday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump said, “Well, it’s a serious problem. We haven’t seen anything like it since the Second World War, and it’s getting worse and worse. And I was actually impressed, in one way, but surprised that Merkel in Germany allowed this to happen, because they’re really flowing through all over Europe. And, if you notice, Russia’s not taking, and China’s not taking, and the Gulf states, whether you look at Saudi Arabia, or Qatar, or any of them, they’re taking none, but some of them are, and some of them are actually being very generous. It just — really, I wonder, you know, where all these people are coming from, exactly, and what are they representing. Because, do you have people from ISIS in that group? You know, there’s a lot of security risks with it. But, something has to be done. It’s an unbelievable humanitarian problem.”
Trump was then asked, “do you object to migrants who are getting out of the Middle East and north Africa, do you object to them coming to the USA?” He answered, “I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, with what’s happening, you have to. You know, this was started by President Obama, when he didn’t go in and do the job when he should have, when he drew the line in the sand, which turned out to be a very artificial line. But, you know, it’s living in hell in Syria, there’s no question about it. They’re living in hell.”
When asked if he would have removed Bashar al-Assad from power, Trump stated, “Well, you know, Obama said he was going to do that, and the problem you have is that Russia is on his side, Iran is on his side, and lots of other things can happen.” And “After the gas, something should have happened.”
He added, “probably, in retrospect, they should have gone in, and they had should have done something with Assad. But you know, Assad is not our biggest problem, because Assad and ISIS are actually fighting. So, now what we’re doing is, we’re fighting ISIS, and ISIS wants to fight Assad. And some people could say, ‘Why don’t you just let them fight out and you take off the remnants?’ We’re stopping — Assad has to say, ‘These people are the nicest people on earth, they’re fighting my enemy.’ But Assad has the benefit of having Russia, and having Iran protecting him.”
Trump concluded, “Europe is becoming a much different place. I was in Paris, and Paris doesn’t look like Paris anymore. You look at what’s going on with some of the major cities, and some of the major countries in Europe, and even before this, it’s a much different place. And I’m not hearing that’s what they want. But, on a humanitarian basis, something does have to be done.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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