President Barack Obama is "obsessed" with shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and it is not the "stain on America" he claims it to be, Rep. Pete King said Tuesday.
"I've been to Guantanamo," the New York Republican told Fox News' "Outnumbered" program. "When he talks about it being a stain on America, on the reputation on American politicians, this denigrates Guantanamo."
The prison, King continued, is "not a concentration camp."
"They have soccer courts," he said. "They get language lessons, art lessons. There is one medical personnel for every three detainees. Everyone gets a copy of the Koran. There are arrows pointing toward Mecca. This is not any kind of concentration camp or anything else . . . I can't imagine any prisoner camp during a war or following a war where prisoners are treated as well as they are in Guantanamo. "
In addition, he said it is "dangerous to let these people go," but Obama is "obsessed with getting as many out as he can, and sending them to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). We have a hard enough time monitoring people here under parole or house arrest."
At least 17 percent of those who have been released end up "back to the battlefield," King continued.
"That means that 17 percent are capable of killing Americans . . . I agree with Donald Trump. I definitely think [Guantanamo] needs to be maintained."
Obama's first executive order was about closing the Cuban prison, King said.
Trump last week complained that Obama is releasing "terrible people" from Guantanamo, and has called for keeping the prison open.
Further, he has criticized Obama and others seeking to try terrorism suspects in traditional courts, saying it would "be fine" to hold hearings before military commissions at the Cuban facility, which was opened by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.