GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson is accusing President Obama of “hypocrisy” for urging Turkey to close its border with Syria, raising concerns about the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Yes, it would be good to seal off the [Turkish] border, so that there wasn’t such a flow of people into the ranks of ISIS,” Carson said on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
{mosads}”But by the same token, you look at our border — it is completely porous. Terrorists can come here also,” the retired neurosurgeon continued.
“For us to sit there and proclaim sanctimoniously that you should close your border while we haven’t done that to protect the American people seems to me the height of hypocrisy.”
The U.S. has called on Turkey to employ stricter measures to prevent foreign fighters from going into and exiting Syria, including those training with militants and returning to cities in Europe.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Obama administration is pushing Turkey to deploy thousands of additional troops on its Syrian border to close off a 60-mile stretch of land.
Obama, who spoke with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday in Paris, said there has been some progress on sealing Turkey’s northwest border but that ISIS fighters continued to exploit some “gaps.”