Meghan McCain and Liz Cheney Engage In Twitter Feud Over Torture After Trump’s CIA Nomination
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Central Intelligence Agency has spurred a feud between the daughters of Republican Senator John McCain and former Vice President Dick Cheney, who take opposing views on appointee Gina Haspel’s track record with torture tactics.
Not long after the Tuesday announcement, John McCain—who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam—released a statement calling the period when the United States tortured its own detainees “one of the darkest chapters in American history,” and insisting that the Senate take a critical eye to Haspel’s involvement in the program during confirmation hearings.
Soon after, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney retweeted the senator, adding her own commentary defending the Enhanced Interrogation Program’s “techniques,” which she said had prevented acts of terrorism, saved lives and aided the capture of Osama bin Laden.
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“No one should slander the brave men and women who carried out this crucial program,” she wrote Tuesday.
Cheney’s apparent dismissal of John McCain didn’t sit well with his daughter, The View co-host Meghan McCain, who retorted, “My father doesn’t need torture explained to him.”
Haspel’s résumé includes time she spent between 2003 and 2005 overseeing the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Program, which involved agents detaining dozens of terror suspects. Those detained were beaten, deprived of sleep and forced into coffins in an attempt to get information from them. Haspel is also known for her involvement in the interrogation of Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, who was thought dead after multiple rounds of waterboarding. Afterward, Haspel signed off on an order from her superior to destroy the tapes documenting his interrogation.
Trump’s appointment of Haspel has raised red flags with many, especially given the president’s own statements on tactics like waterboarding.
“When ISIS is doing things that no one has ever heard of, since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding?” Trump told ABC News in January. “As far as I’m concerned, we have to fight fire with fire.”
At the time, Trump said he’d take his cues on the issue from former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is now set to step into the secretary of state role, and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“If they don’t want to do [it], that’s fine.” Trump said. “And if they do want to do [torture], I will work toward that end.”
But even if Haspel makes it her mission to bring back the interrogation program, she and the Trump administration will run into some obstacles, according to experts.
“The Obama executive order forbidding the CIA from maintaining detention facilities remains in place, and even were it revoked by President Trump, I can’t see Congress funding the construction of new [secret interrogation] sites, or any foreign country agreeing to allow one to be built on its soil,” Robert Eatinger, a former CIA lawyer, said Tuesday.