Ted Cruz Repeats His Latest Head-Scratcher: ‘America Has Never Engaged in Torture’

J.D. DurkinMar 23rd, 2016, 9:09 am
 

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 9.02.09 AMSince the deadly attacks in Belgium yesterday that killed at least 31 people and left hundreds injured, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has injected his campaign travels with a new talking point: “America has never engaged in torture.”

No one pressed Cruz directly on this claim when he first said it yesterday in front of dozens of reporters, and looking ahead to his own hypothetical Presidency, Cruz furthered “…but we will utilize interrogation techniques that are effective.”

Of course, it could have simply been a slip of the tongue — these campaign events are long and draining, as truly there’s no way that a sitting U.S. Senator would try and claim that the United States has never used torture as a means of interrogation. After all, we captured Khalid Sheikh-Monammed using what the CIA now admits was torture and have disrupted domestic and foreign terror plots in the years since 2001 as a result of the controversial practice. Our history with the stuff is well-documented; I guess the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture never made its way across the desk of Cruz when he was, you know, a Senator.

But here’s a quick history from that report alone:

– one detainee was waterboarded for 2-and-a-half weeks until he passed out
– one detainee was stripped naked in a dungeon where he later died of hypothermia
– Khalid Sheik Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and “slammed against walls”
– evidence of prisoners being on the receiving end of “forced enemas”

Remarkably, Cruz repeated the exact same line this morning on Fox & Friends, and here’s a newsflash: not a single host on the show — Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, nor Brian Kilmeade — ever thought to correct the Texas Senator at his ridiculous claims.

Donald Trump may be onto something with this whole “Lyin’ Ted” thing after all.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

Tags: