McCain Says He Is ‘Obviously’ Against Torture, Forgets His Vote To Allow Waterboarding
McCain Says He Is ‘Obviously’ Against Torture, Forgets His Vote To Allow Waterboarding
When asked to judge the Bush administration this morning during an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said “history will judge that” but then immediately began making an attempt to distance himself from President Bush. One area of “disagreement” McCain cited was torture:
McCAIN: I obviously don’t want to torture any prisoners. There’s a long list of areas that we were in disagreement on –
WALLACE: You’re not suggesting he did want to torture prisoners.
McCAIN: Well, waterboarding to me is torture, OK? And waterboarding was advocated by the administration and, according to published reports, was used. But the point is, we’ve had our disagreements.
Watch it:
McCain seems to forget that he voted against a bill that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding. In fact, when the bill passed, McCain urged Bush to veto it, which he did. Thus, McCain’s claim that he “obviously doesn’t want to torture prisoners” rings hollow. Indeed, because of Bush’s veto, the CIA retains the option of waterboarding prisoners:
Still, waterboarding remains in the CIA’s tool kit. The technique can be used, but it requires the consent of the attorney general and president on a case-by-case basis. Bush wants to keep that option open.
“I cannot sign into law a bill that would prevent me, and future presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct a separate, lawful intelligence program, and from taking all lawful actions necessary to protect Americans from attack,” Bush said in a statement.
McCain also said he differed from Bush on climate change, yet he plans to run on the GOP’s election platform, which is “loaded with caveats about the uncertainty of science and the need to ‘resist no-growth radicalism’ in taking on climate change.”
“I’ve been called a quote maverick,” McCain told Wallace, arguing his point. Yet McCain and his conservative allies have yet to indicate how his administration would be anything but a third Bush term.
Transcript:
WALLACE: Big question, how do you assess the Bush presidency?
MCCAIN: I think history will judge that. I do think it’s a fact that America has not been attacked again since 9/11. I think the president deserves credit for that. I think history will judge the president.
As is well-known, I was adamantly opposed to the spending spree that we went on, and predicted that we would be in the difficulties as far as our physical sanity is concerned if we continued the largest increase in government since the Great Society. And I urged vetoes.
I believe strongly that we needed to address the issue of climate change in a comprehensive fashion. I obviously don’t want to torture any prisoners. There is a long list of areas that we were in disagreement on. But I also think…
WALLACE: You’re not suggesting he did want to torture prisoners?
MCCAIN: Well, waterboarding to me is torture, OK? And waterboarding was advocated by the administration, and according to a published report, was used. But the point is we’ve had our disagreements.
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Does this wrinkled old jerkoff do anything besides lie ?
August 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pmRepugnicants turned the word “torture” into a useless word. When they utter torture, it has no, as in zero, meaning.
They took an agreed upon international definition, The Geneva Conventions, and threw it into the harbor.
They’ve been dunking it ever since. McCain clearly had his turn at the lever.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pmIf this man and his Beauty Queen sidekick steal the election, it will be WORSE than 8 years of Bush-Cheney.
It’s not more of the same, it’s a whole new nadir of incompetence!
August 31st, 2008 at 12:33 pmThis issue would make an excellent ad for the Obama team. Go after the maverick who very reluctantly speaks of his own torture (he was a POW, in case you didn’t know) and play this flip flop on endless loop.
This is a key character issue, and McStain went against everything he ever stood for when he refused to vote against the torture ban, going so far as to encouraging Bush to veto it after it passed without McStain’s support.
He is a blatant liar, and it’s time for the American people to see if in lovely video clip montages.
PEACE
August 31st, 2008 at 12:33 pmsorry, meant to say “refuse to vote for the torture ban”
August 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pmmccain was never tortured. he was interrogated with enhanced techniques.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pmYea but Obamas gonna raise your taxes
August 31st, 2008 at 12:37 pmspencers mom Says:
This is a key character issue, and McStain went against everything he ever stood for…
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What you believe is everything he has stood for was a media creation. These narratives were in Book and on Television. You can call it a biography, but when the facts aren’t accurate or can be challenged, I’d suggest its fiction and reality TV.
John McCain always been about under performing and and bucking the system – though not in a mavericky away – in a violation of military conduct code, the law, common sense, and morals.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:39 pmMcCain has more faces than Eve and more tongue more forked than a backwoods Indiana road.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:42 pmBobwurst Says:
mccain was never tortured. he was interrogated with enhanced techniques.
And reportedly lied his head off, under pressure.
So, he won’t say it’s torture, even when he knows from personal experience that false information is the most likely result?
And knowing this, coupled with the fact that he also knows American troops can be tortured by other countries using this as precedent, puts the man beyond the range of redemption. He’s just too corrupt.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:43 pmI agree with Senator Kerry when he said that McCain should start debating himself first before start debating anybody else.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:45 pmThat’s no change we can believe in, my friends.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pmThe one issue that being a POW has direct bearing on, I expect more convition. It’s disgusting that this is a debateable issue in the first place, but having a POW who was tortured running on being a POW who won’t unequivably denounce torture, raises questions of his moral character. I wish he’d once again follow Obama’s lead and say that we are better than that.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:15 pmI agree with Senator Kerry when he said that McCain should start debating himself first before start debating anybody else.
I would drop some serious change if that were broadcast on pay-per-view. It would be better than any WWF Smack-down . . . watching McNumbNuts wrestling with himself.
Clearly, this guy is desperate. There’s been lots of talk about his Failin’ Palin selection being a grab for the disaffected Hillary voters. Personally, I think it is purely a grab for the sympathy vote. I mean, here’s a senile old goat and a woman who isn’t being taken seriously. I just think I will vote for them because their opponents are being so mean to them and the press is badgering them.
Hypothetically, if a President McNumbNuts were to die in office, Failin’ Palin would be wisked away to a deserted island (a la the real CIA plans for disposing of Quayle if this happened to Poppy Bu$h). When you look at Failin’ Palin, you aren’t looking at someone a heartbeat away from the presidency. You are merely looking a some cynical window-dressing for a floundering campaign and a failed candidate.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:17 pmold_hack Says:
Yea but Obamas gonna raise your taxes
Every president is going to raise taxes. The question is how they’re going to raise taxes. The democratic ticket has a sensible plan in order.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:18 pmDementia is a sad thing to watch.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pmTorture: having to listen to him distort the true again and again and again.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:27 pmClearly, McCain thinks that we haven’t been paying attention to his voting record.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:55 pmI believe that McCain was tortured AND brainwashed in Vietnam all those years ago..the man ISN’T FIT to be POTUS..Post tramatic stress…exponentially! Not the man I want anwswering the phone in the middle of the night (God forbid) Why doesn’t Obama just use that ad that Hillary used? Bet she’d let him:)
August 31st, 2008 at 1:58 pm.
Currently, the CRIME OF TORTURE remains unprosecuted.
The Rule of Law is unenforced in favor of the Rule of Men.
WHY IS THERE NOT A DRIVE TO ENFORCE THE RULE OF LAW?
WHERE IS THE IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATION?
WHY IS T.P. SILENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDIES LIKE THIS?
.
August 31st, 2008 at 2:15 pm.
John McCain’s rhetoric means nothing in a Nation where the Rule of Law is NOT enforced.
.
August 31st, 2008 at 2:16 pmdesertflower1,
According to the Rule of Men, the Decider and his Administration disagree with you. Johnny was McEnhanced Interrogated.
.
August 31st, 2008 at 2:18 pmold_hack Says:
Yea but Obamas gonna raise your taxes
August 31st, 2008 at 12:37 pm
______
Good. We gotta pay off the deficit somehow.
August 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pmSorry Max-1…I stand corrected:)But at least I stand for SOMETHING:)
August 31st, 2008 at 2:34 pmOff the topic a bit…but I live in AZ..actually, not far from one of the many houses…and I have to say, this state is SO in the bag for this guy..really hard to read the trash in the paper everyday…I think it was the newspaper that suggested that if Arizonians didn’t vote for Johnny that we were “unpatriotic”. How’s that bunch of crap?Luckily, when the getting was good here in the housing market, we seemed to get an influx of Californians, who take a decidedly more liberal thought on their politics…thank God…don’t feel SO alone.I can tell you, summer’s are brutal…I’m certain that heat did nothing short of fry the old man’s brain even…sorry for the left turn:)
August 31st, 2008 at 2:42 pmdesertflower1,
August 31st, 2008 at 4:35 pmPlease don’t think I disagree with you. In fact, I emphatically agree with you, 100%. I’m just correcting the terminology for Decider purposes since our current form of Government prefers Dictatorial Law…
McCain is against torture. And the unitary President(Bush) has dictated that waterboarding is not torture. I know Mccain voted to allow this. But you see, they feel most Americans will get their propaganda from FOX instead of getting facts of reported news. Others will be working long hours or two or more part time jobs to make ends meet. Still there are those that are to wrapped up in college football, who’s dating Britney etc because they have been disenfranchised by politicians to their Gov’t.
Remember,
There are two things you don’t talk about.
Religion and politics
The two most important things that effect who we are as a nation, ya know.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:10 pmMcCain is telling the truth. Remember, under the new WH dictionary, Waterboarding is enhanced interrogation and doesn’t represent torture. Instead, it is more like a 3rd grade swimming lesson.
Of course, McCain collaborated with the enemy in Viet Nam – and they didn’t have to use waterboarding. So why are the N. Viet interrogators better than our waterboarding and stacking naked prisoners at Abu Ghraib ?
September 1st, 2008 at 7:18 pm