The president spoke on a proposal to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay.
He started his announcement by stating that the facility went against the standards of US national security.
“It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law,”
“As Americans, we pride ourselves on being a beacon to other nations, a model of the rule of law.”
He said that when he first took office, closing this facility was part of his policy. He went on to say that the previous president George W. Bush and Senator John McCain had plans to close the facility. However he said that the “politics of this are tough”.
“I think a lot of the American people are worried about terrorism and, in their mind, the notion of having terrorists held in the United States instead of some distant place can be scary. But part of my message to the American people here is, we’re already holding a bunch of really dangerous terrorists in the United States because we threw the book at them,”
He said “And there have been no incidents. We’ve managed it just fine.”
The president went on to say that terrorists that have been convicted in civil courts and placed in supermax facilities “works just fine”. He then listed a number of attackers who have been held in continental US. The president said that, he believes that public fears on this matter are “fanned oftentimes by misinformation.”