Bernie Sanders: Guantanamo makes us 'look like hypocrites and fools to the entire world'

(Image credit: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

last updated 24 February 2016

At CNN's Democratic Town Hall, Bernie Sanders said that by keeping Guantanamo Bay open, "we look like hypocrites and fools to the entire world."

Sanders was asked what he would tell a voter in South Carolina concerned about Guantanamo Bay detainees possibly arriving in their state, and the senator from Vermont responded by saying "obviously if people are terrorists they need to be confined," but added that the United States has "locked up people in a way that is causing all kind of repercussions around the world. People say 'Oh, you're a Democratic society.' We have locked people in an island, and I think that has hurt us all over the world."

Sanders said that terrorists have to "stay in jail until whatever happens," but he agrees with President Obama's plan to shut Guantanamo down. "I think in the long run, it will help us significantly," he added.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.