Flake: You can't call US troops at the border anything other than a 'stunt' [View all]

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill


BY BRETT SAMUELS - 11/14/18 08:24 AM EST

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that it's unnecessary to send U.S. troops to the southern border to prepare for the arrival of Central American migrants, calling the move ordered by President Trump a "stunt."

Flake, who will retire from the Senate in January, was asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" what he would tell a soldier deployed to the border wanting to know why they were sent there.

"I think it’s unfortunate that we have the soldiers [at the border]," Flake said. "You can’t call it anything but a stunt here, and it’s unfortunate that they’re going to be away from family during the holidays coming up, and we just don’t know what really for.

"We don’t know where the caravan, if it makes it north, is going to come," he continued. "I think it could be handled by civilians that we have there in terms of Border patrol and others. So I don’t know what I could tell them other than we shouldn’t be doing this, and this wasn’t an issue that Congress was involved in, it was an executive decision."

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Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/416591-flake-you-cant-call-us-troops-at-the-border-anything-other-than-a-stunt