Trump says vetted asylum seeker accused in DC attack ‘went cuckoo,’ pledges others will be deported
President Donald Trump
on Thursday addressed concerns about the suspect in the fatal National Guard shooting on Wednesday, saying although he was vetted before entering the U.S., “he went cuckoo.”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national, is accused of fatally shooting Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounding Andrew Wolfe, 24, in a violent, targeted attack blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C.
Lakanwal was vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan and was granted final asylum approval under the Trump administration, multiple sources told Fox News Digital.
When asked how an attack like Wednesday’s could take place after vetting, Trump said Lakanwal “went cuckoo.”
“I mean, he went nuts, and that happens. It happens too often with these people,” Trump said. “There was no vetting or anything. … We have a lot of others in this country, and we’re going to get them out, but they go cuckoo. Something happens to them.”
Trump noted “when it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it’s very hard to get them out. But we’re going to be getting them all out now.”
Hours earlier, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph B. Edlow announced that at Trump’s direction, there would be a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of every green card issued to immigrants from “every country of concern.”
The 19 countries deemed “high-risk” by the USCIS include: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.