Presidential Election

GOP Presidential Candidates Are OK With Torture, Like Most Americans

The GOP presidential candidates seem to like the idea of "enhanced interrogation techniques," and most Americans actually agree with them.

GOP Presidential Candidates Are OK With Torture, Like Most Americans
Getty Images / Joe Raedle
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"We better expand our laws or we're being a bunch of suckers and they are laughing at us. They are laughing at us, believe me," Donald Trump said at the GOP presidential debate.

The GOP presidential candidates seem to come down in favor of "enhanced interrogation techniques," or torture.

"If we capture any of these terrorists alive, they're not going to have the right to remain silent. And they're not going to go to a courtroom in Manhattan. They're going to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we will find out everything they know," Sen. Marco Rubio said.

And most Americans agree. 

Washington Post-ABC News poll about CIA interrogation techniques used after 9/11 found 58 percent said torture of suspected terrorists can be justified "often" or "sometimes."

The CIA techniques included waterboarding and stress positions. 

But a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into that CIA interrogation program found severe torture techniques weren't actually effective at gathering information.

This video includes images from Getty Images and the U.S. Senate