Bernie Sanders: Guantanamo makes us 'look like hypocrites and fools to the entire world'
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 is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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