CNN's Kayleigh McEnany tried to rewrite history when she said some people think waterboarding helped catch Bin Laden. And then said that waterboarding is only a punitive measure.
June 30, 2016

CNN political analyst -- and Trump supporter -- why, CNN, why? -- Kayleigh McEnany decided to redefine what torture is and its effectiveness on CNN's New Day this morning.

This after Trump said he wants to "fight fire with fire" against terrorists.

After playing several clips of Trump begging to use torture on terrorists again, co-host Camerota brought up Trump's ever-changing position on the torture and explained that waterboarding is NOT an effective form of interrogation.

Kayleigh (her real name) immediately tried to undermine what is those facts using the old "some people say" defense. "A lot of people would dispute that take on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, because here's the thing. He only started speaking at all after he was waterboarded that many times. And many people would say that he pointed to the importance of the courier that led us to Osama bin Laden. He didn't give the name, no, but he did highlight the importance of this man."

Actually Kayleigh, the opposite is true. The Senate Report detailed that torture played no part in the capture of Osama Bin laden.

Harsh CIA tactics — including waterboarding, sleep deprivation — didn’t work

Then Kayleigh went off the deep end and used the Dick Cheney argument about torture in general.

She said, "But I'm not sure that it's punitive so much as saying that we need to be strong. The fact that in this country we're not willing to put someone in some form of discomfort, be it sleep deprivation, which many argue is what broke KSM. To not use that mechanism or not even talk about it, not have it as a tool on the table. We are trying to thwart terrorist attacks. We don't want 49 to die in Orlando. We don't want 14 to die in San Bernardino."

This is also nonsense of the highest order. "If it means putting someone in a bit of discomfort to extract information, I think most of the nation would say that's OK within the bounds of the law."

The reason we don't use torture, Kayleigh, is because it is barbaric, illegal, and it doesn't work. Bringing back the same failed arguments about the validity of torture is useless and non-productive.

Just because Trump makes believe he's John Wayne at a rally does not entitle his on-air spokesmodel to rehash the same discredited talking points again and again. Shame on CNN for having her on their network.

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