John Kelly counters Obama ‘wall’ comments: ‘We’re not hiding behind a wall’

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly pushed back on former President Barack Obama’s shot at President Trump’s border wall, and defended the plan to protect the U.S. border with Mexico.

“We’re not hiding behind a wall,” Kelly said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning. “We’re constructing a physical barrier backed up by technology and of course the great men and women of the Customs and Border Protection to simply safeguard our southern border.

“We’re not hiding behind a wall, and you can’t defend anything by hiding behind something,” he continued.


Kelly was responding to comments Obama made during a speech in Berlin on Thursday about the importance of humanitarian aide.

“In this new world that we live in, we can’t isolate ourselves,” the former president said. “We can’t hide behind a wall.”

Trump has pledged to build a wall along the southern border and asked for $1.6 billion for “bricks and mortar for a wall” in his 2018 budget.

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