The President said:
And so although, on its face, the House legislation simply says, well, we can just certify — and this is not along the lines of some of the more radical proposals that we were hearing earlier in the week from some presidential candidates — the fact of the matter is, is that if it gums up the work so much, then effectively you don’t end up seeing any refugees admitted. If you layer it with more and more bureaucracy, that doesn’t actually make us safer because it doesn’t do a better job of screening but simply makes it almost impossible to process individuals who are coming in, then you’re effectively ending the refugee program for people who desperately need it.
And when I referred to a betrayal of our values, I was being very specific about some of the commentary that was made that would suggest, for example, that we might let Christians in but not Muslims; that we — somehow we’re so fearful that a four-year-old orphan might be let in. And those of you who joined me to the refugee center yesterday and you saw those kids, that’s who we’re talking about. If you are a parent and you saw those kids, and you thought about what they had gone through, the notion that we couldn’t find a home for them anywhere in the United States of America, that is contrary to our values.
And the good news is, is that the overwhelming majority of the people who know that we are screening and all the precautions that are already taken — if they saw those kids, they’d say, yeah, we need to do right by those children.
Unlike the Republican candidates, President Obama is living in reality. Just as the Republican cabal tried to deny people health care by spreading inaccurate fears about the Affordable Care Act, the party’s presidential candidates are trying to win an election with a fact-less fear campaign against child refugees from Syria.
Obama is having none of it, and the President called out the cowardice of the men who want to next occupy the Oval Office. If Republicans continue to try to exploit the politics of fear, President Obama will reveal the true colors of his opposition.
While 4-year-old refugees make Republicans cower in fear, President Obama is bombing and killing terrorists on a daily basis.
The difference between the Republican pretenders and the true leadership of Obama has never been clearer.
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