Ben Carson Slams White House: 'Height of Hypocrisy' to Ask Turkey to Close Borders but Not Close Our Own

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson ripped the White House Tuesday, labeling a recent Obama administration request of Turkey the "height of hypocrisy."

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal last week, the White House recently asked Turkey to seal a 60-mile stretch of their border that allegedly acts as a gateway for Islamic State fighters. While Turkey has yet to respond to the Obama administration's request, the report said that Turkey agrees that they need to tighten their border control.

Speaking to "Fox and Friends" early Tuesday, Carson applauded any effort to thwart Islamic State fighters from entering Turkey, but questioned the administration's request, given the United States' own "porous" southern border.

"Height of hypocrisy." @RealBenCarson on White House calls for Turkey to seal off its border with Syria https://t.co/Ew0HAO95BR

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) December 1, 2015

"Yes, it would be good to seal off the border so that there wasn’t such a flow of people into the ranks of ISIS," Carson said. "But by the same token, you look at our border, it is completely porous."

"Terrorists can come here also. I’ve been down there," the retired neurosurgeon added. "I mean, I was astonished by how little protection there is and all of the drugs that are coming through."

"So for us to sit there and proclaim sanctimoniously that you should close your border while we haven’t done that to protect the American people seems to me the height of hypocrisy," he concluded.

Carson recently made a trip to Jordan, where he visited the Azraq refugee camp. While there, Carson said he did not detect a desire from the refugees to come to the United States. Instead, Carson said, most of the refugees have a desire to be repatriated to their home country when the war ends.

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