White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stated that if the president succeeds in closing Guantanamo Bay, some of the inmates will “probably” be brought to the US on Tuesday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel.
Earnest said [relevant remarks begin around 3:30] that “the president’s prepared to make good on that promise [to close Gitmo] and the only reason he hasn’t is because he’s been stymied by Republicans and even some Democrats on Capitol Hill. Here’s the thing Bill that’s important to remember, this isn’t a partisan issue. It’s not just the president and a bunch of Democrats who believe we need to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, President George W. Bush, his secretary of state, his secretary of defense, they also agree that we need to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
When asked, “if you close the prison, do they have come here, or do they go overseas?” Earnest answered, “Well, Bill, I think frankly, it’s probably going to end up both. There are more of these detainees that we can transfer other countries. Who, when put in the right security situation that we negotiate in advance, we can mitigate any risk that they pose to our national security. But, the fact is, Bill, if we do have to bring some of those individuals to the United States, we’re going to put them in the same place where we’re already housing dozens of convicted terrorists in American prisons right now. And that doesn’t pose a threat to our national security, that actually keeps us safe.”
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