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Sen. Flake says 'it's unfortunate' US troops are at the Mexico border

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Sen. Jeff Flake said you can't call U.S. troop deployment to the border "anything but a stunt."

If Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was talking to a soldier deployed to the Mexico border he'd tell them "we shouldn't be doing this."

Flake made the comment Wednesday as he spoke to Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," saying he didn't know what else he could tell them.

"This wasn’t an issue that Congress was involved in, it was an executive decision,” he said.

Flake said "it's unfortunate" troops are even there and the troops stationed in Tucson are not "forward deployed" on the actual border.

"I think you can’t call it anything but a stunt here,” he said.

The Pentagon deployed thousands of troops earlier this month to the United States-Mexico border as a migrant caravan of Central Americans makes its way north to seek asylum in the U.S.

RELATED: What force can troops use against migrants?

“It’s unfortunate that they’re going to be away from family during the holidays coming up and we just don’t know what really for,” Flake said.

The outgoing senator said he thinks it could be handled by Border Patrol agents and others already at the border.

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