“I stopped him once from trying to send the Gitmo terrorists to Leavenworth, Roberts vows filibuster on Gitmo

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts on Friday pledged to stage a filibuster if President Barack Obama attempts to close Guantanamo Bay prison and send the current inmates to facilities within the U.S.

“I stopped him once from trying to send the Gitmo terrorists to Leavenworth” prison, the Republican senator said in Topeka, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In 2009, Roberts and then-Sen. Sam Brownback, now the state’s governor, expressed significant opposition to a proposal considered by the Obama administration to transfer inmates to a maximum security facility at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which ultimately never took place.


Roberts on Friday likened his potential move on Gitmo to that of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours in September 2013 to express his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Roberts campaigned with Cruz, a favorite in the tea party movement, on Thursday in an effort to energize the conservative base in Kansas.

( Also on POLITICO: Democratic fundraiser wages Florida drug war)

“Ted Cruz did it with regards to Obamacare, if necessary I’ll do it for terrorists,” Roberts said.

“I shall do it again, I shall do it again and if he tries it I will shut down the Senate,” Roberts added in reference to Obama.

The incumbent senator, locked in a close general election battle with independent Greg Orman, said he thought he could get the backing from several Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

( Also on POLITICO: Billionaires for Greg Orman)

“I will have help on this,” he said. “I could see John McCain there, I could see Lindsey Graham there. I could see Kelly Ayotte there and I could see a whole bunch of other people there.” The Hill also reported that GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma vowed to participate in a potential filibuster.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Obama administration is considering proposals to use executive action close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and send its 149 inmates to the U.S. One option would include vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act. Congress passed legislation in 2010 to prohibit the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S.

In a statement later Friday, Orman didn’t explicitly mention Roberts or the filibuster, but said that Guantanamo inmates should not be transferred to the U.S. “President Obama is absolutely wrong on this, and the solution is not to bring these terrorists onto U.S. soil,” he said.