Cory Gardner: Closing Gitmo Is Not ‘Going to Change the Hearts and Minds of al Qaeda’

KILMEADE: “Steve, today ten Gitmo detainees set to be transferred out and returned back to the Middle East. Meantime, the Department of Defense is getting closer to look at moving the remainder of the detainees, now we’re under 100 to prisons inside of the U.S. including at least two facilities in Colorado. And that’s new to people of Colorado, including our next guest. Senator from Colorado, Cory Gardner. Senator, can the president do this?”
GARDNER: “If you follow the law, the legislation, that the president himself has signed said he cannot spend money on transferring the detainees or preparing to transfer the detainees unless a series of conditions are met and those conditions have not been met.”
KILMEADE: “So we’re under 100 now once another 14 detainees are out. It seems that the Defense Department is just emptying this place out. The State Department places them. The Defense Department releases them. So you’re going to — if this happens, you’re going to get the Khalid Sheik Muhammad’s of this group. The ones that can’t possibly be let out. How do you feel about that?”
GARDNER: “There are a number of detainees terrorist in Guantanamo Bay who’re left, who aren’t cleared for transfer, because the hardcore nature of their acts, their connections to al Qaeda, their connections to terrorism. The people of Colorado have spoken laud and clear they don’t want them in Guantanamo — they don’t want Guantanamo Bay in Colorado. Almost all of Colorado sheriff’s sent a letter to the president saying we don’t want them in Colorado. Look, this isn’t going to change the hearts and minds of al Qaeda. They’re not all of a sudden going to give up the fight against western values or western civilization because Guantanamo Bay is closed. These people don’t like the United States, they don’t like western values, they don’t like the way of life that we have, the freedoms that we enjoy. And to think that Guantanamo Bay, which is a perfect place for them, is going to change that is gravely mistaken.”
KILMEADE: “You got about 103 left. If this transfer goes through, there will be under 100 for the first time since 2002. We know that 30 percent, the number’s likely higher, go back to fight and becoming terrorists. And there are 59 that are not transferable. So in the big picture, you wonder why do we have a Congress if there are laws in place and the prison can ignore it. When it try to bring these guys to New York to try him Democratic senators stood up to him and he listened. What can you guys do?”
GARDNER: “Look, this is a bipartisan effort that passed that the president signed saying he can’t do it. There’s going to be a number of legal actions that will take place if the president avoids the law, evades the law. Even his own attorney general testified before Congress last year, several months ago, saying that, the law is the law — the president would be expected to uphold the law. And the law right now says —“
KILMEADE: “Right.”
GARDNER: “— Guantanamo Bay detainees can’t be transferred, you can’t even think about it until those conditions have been met.”
KILMEADE: “Senator, what do you say to people go, you’re never going to see these guys again. They’re going deep into the ground, in a super max prison. What’s the big deal? And we’ll save money by closing Gitmo. What’s your reaction?”
GARDNER: “Well again, I don’t think this administration has been very concerned throughout, its a past seven years of saving money. I think they’ve shown quite the opposite actually. But the fact is in Colorado, they’re not just looking at super max, they’re looking at a closed state prison, in fact a prison that was built but never opened. Now, it would cost millions upon millions of dollars to retrofit that closed state prison, perhaps making Colorado a proxy for some of the people who are in Guantanamo Bay carrying out their hate on Colorado just transferring where they are from Guantanamo Bay to Colorado. Look, the people of Colorado have rejected this. They don’t want it.”
KILMEADE: “Right.”
GARDNER: “The sheriffs have said no. The president should abide by the law.”
KILMEADE: “So, we have nowhere to put the terrorists we’ve got and we don’t capture them anymore.” [crosstalk]
GARDNER: “We’ve got them in Guantanamo Bay. That’s where — they’re in Guantanamo Bay.”
KILMEADE: “Sounds good to me. Senator Cory Gardner, thanks for getting up for us. Thank you.”
GARDNER: “Thank you.”