Even Donald Trump thinks the U.S. should take in more Syrian refugees
Donald Trump admitted that the United States should take in Syrian refugees, but grumbled that he doesn't have to be happy about it. "I hate the concept," he said on The O'Reilly Factor Tuesday night, "But on a humanitarian basis, with what's happening, you have to."
Trump pinned the blame for the crisis on Obama, Politico reports, by pointing out that the president's red-line warning to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in 2013 did not prevent the disaster. "It's living in hell in Syria," Trump said. "There's no question about it. They're living in hell, and something has to be done."
"Probably, in retrospect, [the U.S.] should have gone in and they should have done something with Assad," Trump added, maintaining the vague policy-talk that has defined his presidential campaign. "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. Some people could say, 'Why don't you just let them fight it out and you take off the remnants?'"
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An estimated nine million Syrians have fled their homes since the start of the civil war in the spring of 2011. The U.S. has accepted 1,500 refugees from Syria; Germany, by comparison, expects to accept 800,000 this year alone.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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