During a Wednesday cabinet meeting, Donald Trump answered questions about the deadly New York City terror attack on Tuesday afternoon, when Uzbekistani terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov drove a rented truck into a crowd of people on a lower Manhattan bike path. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pleas for the president to not politicize the attack clearly went in vain, because when asked by a reporter whether or not he wanted the assailant sent to Guantanamo Bay, Trump said in no uncertain terms that he would consider it.
“I would certainly consider that, send him to GitMo,” remarked Trump. “I would certainly consider that, yes.” When asked about how Sen Chuck Schumer’s Diversity Visa Lottery may have figured into the attacker’s plot, the president doubled down on his early morning tweets.
“Well they say he came in through that program, so we’re looking at it, but they say he came in,” Trump remarked. “Look, it’s very simple. What we are demanding is merit-based immigration. We want people that are gonna help our country. We want people that are gonna keep our country safe. We don’t want lotteries, where, the wrong people are in the lotteries and guess what, who are the suckers who get those people?”
“I am today starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program,” Pres. Trump says https://t.co/ZiwRwbl0o3 pic.twitter.com/8cO2yGTcOo
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 1, 2017
Earlier in the meeting, Trump announced that he was starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program — or, “diversery lottery program,” as he put it — referring to Saipov as the “animal” who did the attacking. The president’s remarks in regards to the New York City attacker stand in sharp contrast to those he made about white Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, who he referred to as “a very sick individual” as well as “probably smart” for setting up cameras outside his hotel room.