White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Tuesday accused lawmakers who oppose efforts to close down the terrorist detainee center in Guantanamo Bay of pursing narrow and “trivial” political interests.
The Obama administration has hinted that it may want to move the 112 remaining terrorist suspects now in Cuba to facilities in either Colorado, Kansas or South Carolina, which has prompted many in Congress to oppose the plan and push to keep the facility open in Cuba. But Earnest said members aren’t seeing the bigger picture.
In his daily briefing with reporters, Earnest said closing the prison will “require Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to put the national interest ahead of their much more narrow and, in comparison, trivial political interests.”
“We’ve had these … legislative obstacles to our efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay in place for some time,” Earnest said. “And what we have sought is congressional cooperation [but] we haven’t gotten it for years.”
Congress is about to send President Obama a defense policy bill that prohibits him from closing Guantanamo Bay. While Obama clearly opposes that language, Earnest said Tuesday that Obama would not veto the bill.
“But that certainly [does] not … reflect a change in our position or the intensity of our position about the need to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the need for Congress to actually cooperate with us in doing so,” Earnest said.
He still wouldn’t say when the administration will present to Congress its plan for closing the facility, which is expected to arrive on Capitol Hill any day.
Tying his hands on transferring prisoners from the base and shuttering the facility is an “unfortunate perpetuation of the status quo,” Earnest said. “For years, Congress has sought to put this troublesome language in … so I don’t think this has any material impact on our ability to put together and send to Congress a thoughtful, carefully considered plan for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.”
