The U.S. has been facilitating Hamas' ability to carry out attacks and Americans should be "very careful about" something similar happening here with the open border system under President Joe Biden, says former HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
"We are able to see from this the end result of intolerance and demonization and that's why we need to be very careful about that in our country," Carson said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report."
"The fact that these terrorists are there — believe me, they are also in our country. We've had an open border for three years. They've been flooding in there. They're preparing to do something really big. We think this is bad. I think this is the tip of the iceberg because we have not been vigilant. We are facilitating our own demise."
The $6 billion Iran gained access to as part of a prisoner swap deal between the Biden administration and Tehran last month absolutely played a role in Hamas' attack on Israel, Carson said, despite the White House narrative.
"Application of common sense would tell you that that $6 billion played a role because if you were planning to buy something but you didn't feel confident that you had enough money and then you got a telegram that said your uncle just died and left you $1 million, you might go ahead and buy that item even though you don't have $1 million and that's just common sense," he told Newsmax.
"For [White House spokesperson on national issues John Kirby] to sit there and deny that that had any impact is ridiculous. We need to make sure that money is frozen and apply diplomatic pressure to everyone around the world to freeze assets and not buy Iranian oil and not continue to increase their coffers so they can continue to carry out their malicious ideology."
Kirby on Thursday told reporters the entirety of the $6 billion is still in a Qatari bank after it was transferred from South Korea as part of a prisoner swap.
"I'm not going to talk about diplomatic conversations one way or another," Kirby said. "What I can tell you is every single dime of that money is sitting in the Qatari bank. Not one dime of it has been spent."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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