Trump on Waterboarding: ‘Torture Works’

During a campaign event at the Sun City retirement community, Donald Trump said that he supports waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques because “torture works” in the questioning of terrorists.

Trump was responding to a question from South Carolina state Rep. Bill Herbkersman (R), who asked the candidate a series of questions in a fireside-chat-style event that lasted 33 minutes.

“On that whole thing of politically correct, would you allow U.S. interrogators to waterboard terrorist prisoners in order to extract information?” Herbkersman asked Trump.

“Absolutely,” Trump said to strong applause from the audience of about 500 retirees, who often laughed as Trump discussed enhanced interrogation techniques.  Trump emphasized his intention to reinstate waterboarding and techniques that are “so much worse” and “much stronger.”

“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump said. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”

(h/t Washington Post)

Reality

Torture is illegal, unethical, and simply does not work. When a subject is in pain, people will say anything to get the pain to stop. Most of the time, they will lie, make up anything to make you stop hurting them. That means the information provided during the time of torture is useless. It is irresponsible to forget the lessons we learned during the war against terror for Donald Trump to suggest a war crime.

Media

 

Donald Trump Mocks Hillary Clinton for Barking Like Dog

Donald Trump mocked Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for barking like a dog, branding the former secretary of state a ‘joke’, and vowed he would never do so because he said he would be pilloried in the media.

“If I ever did that, I would be ridiculed all over the place. I won’t do it. I’m not going to imitate her,” Trump said during a rally in North Augusta, South Carolina. “She’s barking like a dog, and they’re saying ‘wonderful.'”

Media

Links

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/feb/16/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-barking-speech-video

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/16/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-dog-bark/

Donald Trump rewards a couple of supporters for helping to forcibly remove a protester.

Trump rewards violence

Donald Trump rewards a couple of supporters for helping to forcibly remove a protester.

Reality

Comments like these add to the growing evidence that Donald Trump supports and condones violence against people with different ideas.

By giving permission, and now reward, for confrontations by Trump will make only make violence more normal to his supporters and cause a continued escalation. A true president would work towards uniting and diffusing situations.

Media

Links

http://nypost.com/2016/02/17/trump-supporters-toss-heckler-are-rewarded-handsomely/

Donald Trump Retweets ‘WhiteGenocideTM’ Account—Again

Twitter

For the second time in 2016, Donald Trump reposted a message Wednesday night from a Twitter user who goes by the handle @WhiteGenocideTM.

The Republican presidential candidate retweeted and then deleted a post from @WhiteGenocideTM complimenting his crowds, but MSNBC saved a screenshot of the exchange:

Tweet from @WhiteGenocieTM "@realDonaldTrump You always have the best crowds. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"

Trump was widely criticized after reposting a meme by the same neo-Nazi user in January, which featured a photoshopped image of an apparently homeless Jeb Bush standing outside Trump Tower with a sign reading “Vote Trump.”

The account leaves no doubt about the Twitter user’s white supremacist sympathies. The user’s location is listed as “Jewmerica” and the bio reads “Jewish nationalist/supremacist!” The name: “Donald Trumpovitz.” The account’s feed features dozens of racist memes, posts arguing against miscegenation and pro-Trump messages.

The GOP candidate, who has received vocal support from white nationalist groups, has used retweeting as a way of distancing himself from the extreme views embraced by some of his supporters. After sharing a meme that incorrectly claimed that black Americans commit the majority of murders against white victims, he explained his action to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly by saying, “All it was is a retweet. It wasn’t from me.”

(h/t Talking Points Memo)

Reality

Donald Trump retweeted an account named “White Genocide” on two separate occasions. Let that sink in for a moment.

This isn’t the first time Donald Trump went to Twitter to promote racism.

Trump Heckles Latino Protester

A group of immigration hecklers took on presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign event in New Hampshire.

Trump was taking questions at the historic Exeter Town Hall building in Exeter, where his supporters were packed in like sardines. Also in the mosh pit, it turned out, were a few opponents of the candidates’ position on immigration.

One young woman began asking the Republican candidate for president a question by identifying herself as being from Southern California.

“What are you doing here?” Trump asked. “Are you a liberal Democrat, by any chance?”

After the woman mentioned that immigrants “do the work that nobody else wants to do and for a lot less,” the real estate tycoon asked, “Who told you to be here? Bernie [Sanders]?”

“This is a Bernie plant,” Trump said, referring to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. “This is a Bernie plant.”

Another audience member then yelled out that immigrants living in the country illegally are the “backbone of this country.” In response Trump heckled back:

Illegal immigrants are the backbone of our country? I don’t think so, darling. You know what the backbone of our country is? People that came here, and they came here legally … and they worked their asses off and they made the country great.

Media

Links

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/02/05/trump-to-heckler-illegal-immigrants-backbone-our-country-dont-think-so-honey/

Trump Admits He Lost Iowa Because He Has No Idea How to Run a Campaign

Trump came in second place in the Iowa caucus, despite polls showing he had a good chance of winning the state.

At the beginning of his Wednesday interview on “Morning Joe,” it seemed Trump was not thrilled to talk about his second place finish.

“So let’s talk about Iowa. What happened?” “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Trump.

After a long pause, Trump simply responded, “OK.”

The hosts then asked if Trump could hear them, and he said he could.

When asked again what happened in Iowa, Trump responded, “Well, I think I did well there,” adding that he could have done better if he “did a little more work there.”

“The caucus system is a complex system that I was never familiar with,” the Republican presidential candidate continued. “I mean, I was never involved with the caucus system. Don’t forget, Joe, I’m doing this for the first time. I’m like a rookie. And I’m learning fast, and I do learn fast.”

Reality

Another example of how Trump is dangerously unqualified.

Media

Trump Accuses Cruz of Stealing Iowa Caucuses

Twitter

Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Sen. Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses, calling for either new voting there or the results to be nullified.

Cruz, the conservative senator from Texas, defeated Trump in Iowa Monday night.

“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump tweeted. “That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated.”

“Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” Donald Trump wrote a Twitter, one of a series of Tweets attacking Cruz and questioning the outcome of the Iowa caucuses.

Trump slammed Cruz for sending out deceitful mailers that shared voter’s caucus attendance records with their neighbors and warning voters of “VOTER VIOLATION.”

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Outside of conspiracy theories from neo-nazi’s and 8chan, Cruz won Iowa.

Trump later admitted he didn’t have a good ground-game in Iowa. In fact he didn’t even know what that term was.

Donald Trump Promises to Pay Legal Fees to Supports Who Knock the Crap Out of Protesters

Trump yelling

At a rally Monday afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that if they happened to see protesters getting ready to lob a tomato, they should “knock the crap out of them.” Trump began his speech by noting that he had received a warning from the “wonderful security guys.” He said:

There may be somebody with tomatoes in the audience. So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell— I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise. It won’t be so much ’cause the courts agree with us too.

(h/t Mediate)

Reality

Tomatoes are the deadliest of all the vegetables and we’re lucky no one was killed.

Media

Fox Says Trump Wanted $5 Million Donation

Fox News logo

Fox News Channel accused Donald Trump of asking the network for a $5 million donation as a “quid pro quo” in return for Trump’s promise to appear in Thursday night’s Republican debate, as an extraordinary feud between the right’s best-known media platform and the Republican party’s presidential front-runner overshadowed the last debate before the Iowa caucuses.

“Roger Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about possibly appearing at the debate – there were not multiple calls placed by Ailes to Trump.

 

In the course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly, and prevent her from being smeared any further.

 

Furthermore, Trump offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money change hands for any reason.

 

We have accomplished those two goals and we are pleased with the outcome. We’re very proud to have her on stage as a debate moderator alongside Bret Baier & Chris Wallace.”

(h/t Chicago Tribune)

Reality

By shaking down Fox News for $5 million dollars in order to appear at their debate Donald Trump just committed a crime.

It’s also ironic that Trump refused to attend the debate by accusing Megyn Kelly of having a conflict of interest.

Protesters Removed at Trumps Rally For Vets in Iowa

Trump at rally for vets in Des Moines

Instead of participating in his party’s seventh debate on Thursday, due to his intense fear of Megyn Kelly, Trump decided to host a rival event.

Shortly after Republican front-runner Donald Trump began speaking at his veterans’ fundraising event in Iowa on Thursday night, a move in protest of Fox News’s GOP debate happening simultaneously nearby, three protesters began shouting at the billionaire from the audience.

“We love our vets, Trump loves war!” two women and a man said as security personnel escorted them out of the gathering at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Media

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PMynb62GRk&feature=youtu.be&list=PLNxwX7r4A557Vi7hxxkX0GTLRbsYO7HDl

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