The United States' "failed policies" have allowed ISIS to flourish and caused thousands of Syrian refugees to flee their homes, but GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Thursday it makes little sense to bring them more than 8,000 miles away from their homes and risk having terrorists amongst their numbers.
"It doesn't make sense as much as it would to get these areas safe again and let them get home," the former Arkansas governor told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"It doesn't mean we wouldn't be of assistance, whether it's to provide food, humanitarian aid, assistance to set up camps, but close to their region so that when they are ready to go back home, it's not an 8,000 mile journey," said Huckabee. "How does it help them if they don't speak our language, they don't have jobs, to be able to function in our schools? Let's give a grant, set up a genuine humanitarian effort to them."
He repeated an assertation he made in Tuesday night's undercard debate, saying that Americans in wealthy areas such as Beverly Hills and Martha's Vineyard, as people who want them in America are not advocating they come to their own neighborhoods, a statement correspondent Steve Rattner opposed.
"I happen to have a house on Martha's Vineyard and we would be happy to have some Syrian refugees come and stay in our neighborhood and in our house for that matter," Rattner told him.
Huckabee also told the program he "wouldn't rule it out" if he was president and a call came to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al Assad, but he wouldn't want to say that he'd make that move for sure, "because technically it's not legal for us to assassinate foreign leaders," and because something worse may happen.
"He's not the number one enemy of America right now...just because you get rid of one dictator doesn't mean things are going to get better in a region unless something replaces that is better and stable."
Huckabee also spoke about the GOP race, saying that although his numbers are low, he wants to see how the Iowa caucuses pan out.
"Nobody had it figured out that Donald Trump was going to be riding higher now than he was when he first started. If I depended on what pundits predict or think or assess, look, nobody got it right," said Huckabee.
Show host Joe Scarborough pointed out that Huckabee, in a
Wednesday interview with Newsmax, had voiced his frustration about how experience is not coming into play in this year's race.
"I think it's because people are so angry and so distrustful of government," said Huckabee Thursday morning. "A a lot of Americans haven't stopped to ask themselves what is the presidency? Is it an entry level job?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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