Former Vice President Cheney recently appeared at American University to give a speech to the student body. What came up most often was the former vice president’s support for enhanced interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists. Mr. Cheney was forced to defend these techniques saying, “The accusations are not true…Some people call it torture. It wasn’t torture.” He continued by stating that if he had to do it all over again, he would.
Following these statements last week, Senator Angus King (I-ME) appeared on MSNBC this past Sunday. His reaction was not so kind to the former vice president. He said,
“I was stunned to hear that quote from Vice President Cheney,” King explained. “If he doesn’t think that was torture, I would invite him anywhere in the United States to sit in a waterboard and go through what those people went through, one of them a hundred and plus-odd times.”
“That’s ridiculous to make that claim! This was torture by anybody’s definition,” he continued. “John McCain says it’s torture, and I think he’s in a better position to know this than Vice President Cheney. I was shocked to hear that statement that he just made.”
“And to say that it was carefully managed, and everybody knew what was going on, that’s absolutely nonsense.”
King concluded: “Sorry to be sort of wound up on this, but I couldn’t believe that quote from Vice President Cheney.”
A report completed by the Senate Intelligence Committee found that the CIA misled the government and overstated the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation techniques. Watch the clip of Senator King’s statements below. Perhaps threatening the former vice president is not the way to go about making your argument!