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During Wednesday's press briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that President Obama will do “everything he can” to achieve his goal of closing Guantanamo Bay, with or without legislative approval by Congress.
Earnest criticized Republicans in Congress for preventing "a carefully considered, rational approach" to dealing with the military prison and its detainees.
“The reaction from Congress has essentially prevented a carefully considered, rational approach to dealing with these individuals,” said Earnest.
“Continuing to detain individuals that cannot be transferred and cannot be prosecuted at the prison at Guantanamo Bay is incredibly expensive and does play into the narrative that extremists around the world use to recruit terrorists,” he argued.
Earnest contended that it is the view of the Obama administration that transferring detainees from Gitmo to U.S. soil would be the “more cost-effective way to ensure these individuals do not pose a threat to our national security.”
“I think it’s a pretty commonsense view that we should find a more cost-effective way to ensure these individuals do not pose a threat to our national security," he said, "and our prison system has already demonstrated the ability to house and detain convicted terrorists.“
What the White House spokesman failed to mention was whether the administration’s plan “to house and detain” convicted terrorists on American soil was the safest solution, not just the “more cost-effective.”
When asked by a reporter whether President Obama would consider going around Congress in moving detainees out of Guantanamo, Earnest said that he “would not take anything off the table," leaving the door wide open for an executive order in the near future.
“At this point, I would not take anything off the table in terms of the President doing everything that he can to achieve this critically important national security objective,” he said.
Listen to his remarks in the short video clip below.