Fox Anchor Defends Donald Trump's Call To Bring Back Waterboarding Of Suspected Terrorists

From the November 23 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:

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MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): You listen to that sound bite about waterboarding, and you listen to what [Donald Trump] is saying and what he talks about in terms of James Foley, and the dunking of people in cages and they come up lifeless. Mary Anne, it is obvious that that is resonating with a lot of people, when it comes to these polls.

[...]

KATIE PAVLICH: Despite what maybe some people in Washington may think, particularly in the White House, the American people, both Democrats, Independents and Republicans also -- they understand that we are at war. And they want someone in the Oval Office who also accepts that sobering reality of the fact that we are at war. And when Donald Trump talks about bringing back waterboarding, I think it's really important to point out why that's important. It's because it's not about comparing us to what ISIS is doing, we have higher standards than that, because we are the United States of America. But the bottom line is that waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques work to keep Americans safe. It not only got us the ability to take down top Al Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama Bin Laden, but it also gave us the ability to stop attacks that were in the planning stages. And when you look at what happened in Paris recently, Beirut and Mali, people are really sitting down and saying OK, first things first, we can't do anything else with our lives unless we are safe, and we need someone in the Oval Office who takes the fact that we are at war seriously, and that enhanced interrogation has kept this country safe and it needs to be safe moving forward. 

MACCALLUM: Alright, let's bring up this poll, the most important issue facing the country. And as we've said, the economy is generally, pretty much in every election, that's always going to be number one. Pocketbook issues are always number one. But now you have got terrorism at 24 percent. And you look at, you know, Hillary Clinton on the other side of the fence here, who is going to be very closely aligned with the policies of President Obama on this issue. And you've got Donald Trump saying that he wants to surveil mosques. He wants to reinstate a program that was in effect in New York and New Jersey where they were allowed to investigate mosques if they thought they were particular mosques that were hot beds, where radicals were hanging out. And why shouldn't they be able to do that, Mary Anne?

MARY ANNE MARSH: Well, I think a couple things here, Martha. First and foremost, waterboarding doesn't work, so I just want to correct Katie on that.

[CROSSTALK]

MACCALLUM: I don't want to get into the dispute over that, honestly, I understand that you are both on different sides of it and many people are, but Katie believes that it did work -- 

[CROSSTALK]

MARSH: And the CIA, Dianne Feinstein and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- it did not work, number one. Number two, Hillary Clinton gave a -- well, those are facts, OK?

PAVLICH: Those aren't facts. It's a partisan hack attack. 

MARSH: Hillary Clinton gave a very impressive speech. Oh, Katie you're better than that, that's not true. Just go check the facts, check the report that came out. 

[CROSSTALK]

PAVLICH: Talk to the CIA, the partisan report that the CIA debunked multiple times. Six top ranking officials at the CIA said it was an attack, that it was not true. They provided the evidence that they took down top Al Qaeda leaders. It absolutely worked.

[CROSSTALK]

MARSH: The CIA absolutely said, and especially in the instance of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the architects of 9/11, waterboarding did not work. 

MACCALLUM: Alright, but you know what, there were other people who were involved and who were in the room, in some cases, who believe it actually was the thing that put him over the edge and forced him to divulge some information. Like I said, let's move on.

Previously

Fox's Steve Doocy Praises Trump For Endorsing Waterboarding: He “Hit It Out Of The Park”

Fox Guest: Waterboarding Is Not Torture, It's Interrogation

Hannity Defends Sarah Palin's “Waterboarding Is How We Baptize Terrorists” Comments