Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson explained his surprise trip to visit Syrian refugees in Jordan because he said he wanted “to come to see with my own eyes this great human tragedy.”
He met with medical professionals, humanitarian workers and government officials on Saturday, as well talked to Syrians who were forced to flee their country.
“These brave people want nothing more than an end the war in Syria. They want to go back to their lives,” Carson said in a campaign email, calling to action to his fellow Americans. “We must find a political end to this conflict.”
In it, he describes his experience visiting a Jordanian camp for Syrian refugees and also takes a strong stance with the government of Jordan.
The trip, which was initially reported by the New York Times on Thursday evening, was in the works for more than two months, Carson said.
Carson applauded the magnanimity of the Jordanian government, who has admitted Syrian refugees “with open arms,” noting that Jordan is a small kingdom with limited resources.
“Bringing 25,000 refugees to the United States does nothing to solve this crisis,” Carson said in the email.
Though he proposes no immediate solution, he foreshadows a release of his own plan “in the coming days” that will offer solutions to the “Obama Clinton Administrations (sic) failed policies.”