After refusing to answer whether or not the U.S. should take in some of the refugees and migrants flooding European borders, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took to twitter Wednesday to defend his opposition to the idea.
We shouldn't be taking in any more Syrian refugees right now. The real problem here is the Obama Admin's failure to deal with #ISIS. – SW
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) September 9, 2015“We shouldn’t be taking in any more Syrian refugees right now. The real problem here is the Obama Admin’s failure to deal with #ISIS,” Walker tweeted, adding his initials to denote a personal tweet.
Walker fired off a second tweet, adding, “US already takes nearly 70,000 refugees/year – about 2,000 from Syria. We’ve spent $4 billion on Syrian crisis.”
The United Nations reports there are more than 4 million Syrian refugees, with hundreds of thousands from the region trying to flee to Europe.
Walker first explained his position to reporters at the Governor’s Small Business Summit in his home state, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. His new stance comes after he received criticism and was mocked for avoiding direct questions earlier this week about the United States accepting refugees.
“Again, I think the problem is we’re ignoring the basis of the core of the problem,” Walker told reporters during a stop in New Hampshire on Monday. “The problem is this president has had a weak stance in terms of taking on ISIS. Until we address that, it’s going to only further exacerbate the challenges we face.”
However, when Walker was pressed on how he would handle the crisis if he were president today, Walker interrupted the reporter, saying “I’m not president today and I can’t be president today.”
“I’m going to be president in January 2017, and I’m telling you what people need to do. Everybody wants to talk about hypotheticals, there is no such thing as a hypothetical,” Walker added before shifting to his plan to effectively take on ISIS— which he called the core of the problem.
“The next president needs to send a clear message that we’re going to take on ISIS and we’re going to work with our allies to make sure that, with Kurds and Sunnis, we push ISIS out of Iraq and make sure they don’t receive safe haven in Syria,” Walker said Monday.
Shaquille Brewster