Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Saturday that he will will push back against President-elect Donald Trump if he tries to implement waterboarding or torture.
Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum, McCain said that he and others in the Senate will push back against anyone who wants to go back to waterboarding, noting that it is illegal.
“I don’t give a damn what the president wants to do,” he said. “We will not waterboard. We will not torture people.”
McCain went even further to say that anyone who brought back waterboarding would be in court in a “New York minute.”
“If they started waterboarding, I swear to you that we’d have them in court in a New York minute,” McCain said.
McCain, who served as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War and was held more than five years as a prisoner of war, has a contentious relationship with Trump, who notably said that he likes people who “don’t get captured” in reference to McCain. Trump has said in the past that he would like to bring back waterboarding and “worse” to fight terrorists.
The moderator asked McCain if he had spoken to Trump since he was elected and he said it had and that it went “fine.” He also played coy on whether Trump offered him a job.
“Did he offer you a job?” the moderator asked.
“Missed that,” McCain said.
Watch the entire panel below:
John McCain has no credibility. He caved to George Bush on torture and he will cave to Trump as well.
Despite my general level of disgust with John McCain, I am going to give him credit for taking a strong stance with this statement on torture. (Perhaps I’m just looking for any reason to be hopeful that someone will stand up to Trump.)
So what? Sooner or later, any case going after Trump would make its way to a Supreme Court with one or more justices appointed by Trump.
Screw national or international law. It’s a new era, and Trump will be able to get away with whatever he chooses, no matter how much harm that does.
Why would a pathological liar like Trump deviate from his common practice by admitting the truth- that he okayed water boarding? Even Cheney called it “enhanced interrogation.” So when we are governed like Putin governs, we will never know, as in most closed societies and totalitarian regimes.
How mavericky of you, John, but your integrity and credibility can be summed up in two words: Sarah Palin.