Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is seizing on President Obama’s fresh plans to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison in his bid to hold off independent challenger Greg Orman.
The military brig at Leavenworth, Kan., has been mentioned as a possible destination for Guantanamo Bay prisoners if the facility is closed and they are transferred to U.S. soil.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have blocked Obama’s previous moves to do this, and Roberts plans to raise the issue Friday in Wichita, the next stop of a statewide campaign bus tour he launched on Thursday.
In Wichita, Roberts will vow to use every parliamentary tool at his disposal to block Obama’s plan to bypass Congress, close Gitmo by executive order and transfer its prisoners — all terrorists or suspected terorrists — to U.S. facilities.
Roberts highlighted the issue earlier Friday in Topeka, but plans to do so with greater emphasis in Wichita and in the coming days, his campaign confirmed.
“When President Obama first tried to bring Gitmo terrorists to Kansas, I stopped him, and if he tries to do it again, I will shut down the Senate,” Roberts said earlier Friday, according to transcripts of remarks he delivered that were provided by his campaign. “This is a defining issue between Greg Orman and myself because Mr. Orman supports amnesty and he supports President Obama. Under no circumstances will I ever allow terrorists onto Kansas soil and I will fight the President tooth-and-nail on it.”
The senator’s campaign believes the issue will resonate with Kansans, who strongly disapprove of the president, and highlight Orman’s unwillingness to take a stand on some high-profile issues, like whether he would vote to repeal Obamacare. However, Orman is taking a position on the issue, and in fact he agrees with Roberts.
“President Obama is absolutely wrong on this, and the solution is not to bring these terrorists onto U.S. soil,” Orman said, in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner by his campaign.
Could revelations of Obama’s latest plan for Gitmo influence voters? Absolutely, said a Republican who represents Leavenworth in the Kansas Legislature.
“That issue is very potent, even explosive for this area. We went through this discussion 3-4 years ago,” state Rep. John Bradford said in an email exchange. “There is absolutely NO support for moving Gitmo here.”
Orman, a wealthy businessman, jumped out to a solid lead over Roberts in late September and early October. But recent polls show that Roberts has closed the gap on the strength of a wave of television and radio advertising.
Polls by CNN and Fox News showed Roberts with his first lead over Orman since Democrat Chad Taylor removed his name from the Nov. 4 ballot, and GOP sources say internal polls now show the senator in front by “a few” points.
Roberts’ core message is that Orman is a “liberal Democrat” pretending to be independent, and that supporting him will ensure that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., continues as majority leader. That message, Kansas Republican insiders say, has been very effective.
GOP voters who had rebuffed Roberts in the aftermath of his bitter primary with a Tea Party challenger are now coming back into the fold, they argue.
