Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images(HALIFAX, Nova Scotia) — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, warned against using torture and waterboarding in remarks Saturday that were at odds with views previously stated by the president-elect.
At the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday in Halifax, Nova Scotia, McCain– who was tortured as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War– said anyone who started waterboarding would be taken to court “in a New York minute.”
“I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do, or anybody else wants to do. We will not waterboard, we will not torture,” he said to applause from the crowd.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in February, President-elect Donald Trump said he would “absolutely authorize something beyond waterboarding.”
“We’re like living in medieval times,” he said in February. “If I had to do it, and if it’s up to me, I would absolutely bring back waterboarding. And if it’s going to be tougher than waterboarding, I would bring that back too.”
McCain argued Saturday that waterboarding “doesn’t work.”
“If you inflict enough pain on somebody long enough, they’re gonna tell you whatever they think you wanna hear to have it stop,” he said.
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