McCain to O’Reilly: We Shouldn’t Engage in ‘Spanish Inquisition Methods of Torture’

Senator John McCain, one of the only Republicans in Congress not trashing the CIA torture report (to the point where he received some serious plaudits from Jon Stewart), got into it with Bill O’Reilly tonight over what McCain called “Spanish Inquisition methods of torture.”

O’Reilly wasn’t necessarily against McCain’s position, he just told the Arizona senator that over and over, multiple high-ranking CIA officials and agency heads have insisted they received valuable intelligence from such methods. McCain argued the opposite and said, “If you inflict enough physical pain on someone, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear.”

RELATED: McCain on CIA Report: Torture Was ‘Ineffective,’ ‘Stained Our National Honor’

McCain said the United States never took such horrible actions before. When O’Reilly tried to point to a WWII incident in which U.S. soldiers fired on Germans with their hands up, McCain argued the fog of war is far different than capturing a prisoner, bringing them to a secret location, and “using the Spanish Inquisition methods of torture” on them.

They did end on a lighter note, with McCain making a joke about O’Reilly torturing him with questions.

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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