Donald Trump elaborated on his opinion of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation of terrorist suspects Wednesday by saying, flat-out, "Torture works."
Trump has already stated that he favors the return of waterboarding as an interrogation technique, declaring during a New Hampshire primary debate he would also "bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding". During a question and answer session Wednesday in Sun City, S.C., he went even further. Here is a partial transcript:
"Torture works. OK, folks? You know, I have these guys -- "Torture doesn't work!" -- believe me, it works. And waterboarding is your minor form. Some people say it's not actually torture. Let's assume it is. But they asked me the question, What do you think of waterboarding? Absolutely fine. But we should go much stronger than waterboarding. That's the way I feel. They're chopping off heads. Believe me, we should go much stronger, because our country's in trouble. We're in danger. We have people that want to do really bad things! Remeber the power of weaponry. This isn't 100 years ago where we fight hand to hand combat. This is weapons that are so destructive -- so destructive -- that the world could end. We have to be very strong, we have to be very vigilant, we have to be very tough. Waterboarding is fine, but it's not nearly tough enough, OK?
Trump argued in a USA Today op-ed published last weekend that he "would support and endorse the use of enhanced interrogation techniques if the use of these methods would enhance the protection and safety of the nation.
"Though the effectiveness of many of these methods may be in dispute, nothing should be taken off the table when American lives are at stake," he added.
On that narrow point, Sen. Ted Cruz has been sympathetic, saying "if it were necessary to prevent a city from, say, facing an imminent terrorist attack, you can rest assured that as commander in chief, I would use whatever enhanced interrogation methods we could to keep this country safe." Cruz, however, does not share Trump's sweeping beliefs about the liberal application of enhanced interrogation.
Sen. John McCain indirectly responded to Trump's previous statements on the subject in a Senate floor speech last week, saying that they warrant a strong rebuttal.
"It might be easy to dismiss this bluster as cheap campaign rhetoric. But these statements must not go unanswered, because they mislead the American people about the realities of interrogation, how to gather intelligence, what it takes to defend our security, and at the most fundamental level, what we are fighting for as a nation, and what kind of nation we are," McCain said.
Full video of Trump's comments Wednesday, via the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, is below.
