Pence Won’t Say Whether Trump Will Bring Back Waterboarding

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

When asked on Sunday about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) pledge to push back on any attempts to renew the practice of waterboarding, Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Sunday did not rule out the possibility of a Trump administration using the practice that many experts say constitutes torture.

“What I can tell you is that going forward, as he outlined in that famous speech in Ohio, that a President Donald Trump is going to focus on confronting and defeating radical Islamic terrorism as a threat to this country,” Pence said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” if Trump would bring back waterboarding. “And we’re going to have a president again who will never say what we’ll never do.”

On the campaign trail in March, Trump suggested that the United States “go for waterboarding and tougher than waterboarding.”

Watch a clip of the interview via CBS News:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Let’s bring back the iron maiden! And pincers. Tearing flesh with red hot pincers. And the thing where they tighten wet rope until bones pop and organs ooze. Yay! America is great!

  2. “And we’re going to have a president again who will never say what we’ll never do.”

    Are you going to do the illegal stuff?
    ‘Well now, we can’t say what we’re going to do or not. We want to maintain unpredictability, so we’re going to leave the illegal stuff on the table.’

  3. I can’t wait until they start talking about nuclear policy.
    I bet that the major reporters realize that even bringing up the topic could lead to an international incident—possibly before Trump even assumes office.

    Keep the powder dry, the silos open, and keep the gas chambers set on low.

  4. The logical followup to this is ask if that means Trump won’t rule out chopping off fingers during interrogations, or perhaps sexual assualt? Burning?

  5. I won’t rule out rioting in the streets.
    You are an embarrassment to American principles

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

14 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for rxbusa Avatar for sysprog Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for thepsyker Avatar for mantan Avatar for chuck_voellinger Avatar for doobieibood Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for lastroth Avatar for denisj Avatar for fitley Avatar for maxaroo Avatar for nomoredevil Avatar for pb Avatar for bardi Avatar for dave_mb Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for centralasiaexpat Avatar for demosthenes59

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: