Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says Americans wouldn't become refugees like Syrians and questioned why young Syrian men are leaving instead of fighting to support their country.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war, millions of Syrians have fled the war torn country for Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
"When you think about it, fundamentally, people say okay, if you want to leave your country and you're a healthy male maybe between the age of 18 and 35, why are you leaving you country to go to another country," Lewandowski said this week on the John Fredericks Show. "I can't imagine anyone from our country doing that. We would see our men, double down, support their country, make sure that we continue to have the greatest country in the world."
And, so [Trump] raised the issue, 'hey are these the refugees that we are gonna be taking in," Do we really need 200,000 additional Syrians coming to our country. Why don't they stay and fight for their own country as opposed to us putting our troops over there, fighting for them. Maybe there's something fundamentally wrong with that.'"
In interview and speeches, Trump has said he believes taking in "trojan horse" Syrian refugees could result in an ISIS "military coup" in the U.S..
The Obama administration announced in early September that it hopes to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees next year. Refugees seeking entry into the United States undergo multiple high-level security checks and an in-person interview with a representative from the Department of Homeland security. It's unclear where Trump got the 200,000 figure he and his campaign have repeated.
