Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) on Wednesday argued for an expansion of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, saying that prisoners who are there “earned it.”
“It ain’t Martha Stewart we’re putting in Guantanamo Bay,” Gardner said on “Fox and Friends.” “These are people who deserve to be there. They earned it. And this is a facility that is tailor-made for terrorists.”
Gardner joined 10 other Senate Republicans last week in reaffirming support for the controversial detention facility, sending a letter to President Trump urging him to halt the transfer of detainees out of the prison and strengthen U.S. operations there.
{mosads}Former President Obama pledged during his first campaign to close the prison, though he ultimately failed to fulfill that promise. Obama did, however, step up efforts to transfer detainees out of the facility.
Gardner slammed those efforts on Wednesday, saying that terror suspects shouldn’t be detained in the U.S.
“You’ve got some really bad professional jihadists that don’t deserve to be on U.S. soil, and they need company,” Gardner said.
“They need to be there with some of the worst elements around the globe, as we keep them in a secure facility, where he can get the kind of information we need that can make a difference in our efforts to stop terrorists.”
President Trump has called for the facility to remain open and to send newly captured terror suspects there.
Draft executive orders to keep the prison open and demanding suspected Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants who are captured be sent there have been floated since Trump took office last month.