O’Malley: We Should Accept More Syrian Refugees If the Crisis Increases

What would you say to new Hampshire’s governor tonight? Is she wrong on this?
>> No, what I would say is this is look, I was the first of the three of us to call for America to September 65,000 refugees we were asked to accept. And if this humanitarian crisis increases, we should accept more.
>> So the idea of a halt or a pause?
[ Applause ]
>> David, there are wider vulnerabilities than when it comes to refugees. I met recently with some members of the chaldean Christian communities and the wait times are a year, 18 months, 24 months. There is a pretty excruciating process that refugees go through. We need to invest more in terms of the other sort of Visas and the other sort of waivers. What these chaldean families told me is their families in Syria, when ISIS moves into their town, they actually paint a Red Cross across the door and mark their homes for demolition, and that tells the family you’d better get out now. The sort of genocide and brutality that the victims are suffering, these are not the perpetrators. We need to be the nation whose enduring symbol is the statue of liberty, and we need to act like the great country we are according to our values.