Trump Defends Torture In Op-Ed: ‘Nothing Should Be Taken Off The Table’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump assured the American people he “would support and endorse the use of enhanced interrogation techniques” in his administration’s potential terror investigations in a column for USA Today published Monday.

“I have made it clear in my campaign that I 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,” Trump wrote. “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.”

“I will do whatever it takes to protect and defend this nation and its people,” he added.

Trump said he wanted to do everything he could to keep Americans safe.

“I cannot imagine knowing that something could have been done to save American lives and then not taking those actions. Ultimately, the president must live with those decisions,” he concluded.

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  1. Except morality and religion.

  2. Wouldn’t having Donald Trump as President of the United States be more than torture enough for the nation and the entire world?

  3. Avatar for pine pine says:

    "Trump On Enhanced Interrogation: ‘Nothing Should Be Taken Off The Table’

    Not even a toy soldier is Trump.

  4. Donald: Ever wonder why ISIS beheads people? Think about it, asshole.

  5. There are few things on which there is such a solid consensus as torture. Since early modern times, forward-looking political and religious leaders have agreed that it’s deeply wrong. Interrogators who want to get solid information, and aren’t interested in breaking the prisoner’s psyche as a weapon of terror, agree it doesn’t work. George Washington, a person who arguably had his nation’s best interests in mind most of the time, forbade it.

    But then, on the other hand, we have the opinion of the reality-show buffoon whose wife testified to his having pulled out her hair and raped her in a fit of pique. So there’s that. If you’re impressed with clownish pseudo-toughness from people who were never within a thousand miles of a battlefield, I guess that counts for something.

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