During Saturday evening’s ABC GOP debate, a rough start progressed into a showdown between Ted Cruz and Ben Carson over Cruz’s slimy campaign maneuvers. After several more issues, things took a turn for the weird when the candidates weighed in on torture. The entire segment played like a “what’s your favorite method?” discussion.
Ted Cruz led the circus by claiming that he wasn’t for waterboarding, yet he swallowed an inordinate amount of time relishing the subject of torture. This reaction isn’t surprising when it comes to Cruz, who spent his Supreme Court clerkship expressing a disturbing obsession with the death penalty. He also aims to “carpet bomb” swaths of Syria, so he really got down with torture talk.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump engaged in a rousing discussion of how terrorists are “chopping the heads” off civilized folk. Trump insisted, “I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Marco Rubio then paused to consider whether waterboarding is torture. He appears to believe the television conversation should cease. Why? Rubio implies that terrorists watch GOP debates, so let’s not give them any ideas. Of course, Rubio wasn’t exactly present when the Senate voted on a key torture bill.
FACT: Marco Rubio was the ONLY Senator who missed the vote on banning torture during interrogations. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/k7y1ykCjwk
— Florida Democrats (@FlaDems) February 7, 2016
Twitter’s general reaction to this whole torture discussion was shock, disgust, and then this.
New torture method: Make them watch the intro sequence from this debate. #GOPdebate pic.twitter.com/TLUjbJJBRe
— Lisa De Pasquale (@LisaDeP) February 7, 2016
Several other tweets addressed the absurdity and hypocrisy at hand.
Hey, @tedcruz. Ask Siri for the definition of "torture". #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/TLcE3yf9wX
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) February 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/dresdencodak/status/696161539351408641
https://twitter.com/rajbrowne/status/696163921355378688
When the GOP candidates say that waterboarding isn't a form of torture #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/pwgiCNYUSd
— Ashley (@shleyre) February 7, 2016
We must take the heroin. We must bomb the heroin. We must torture the heroin. #GOPDebate
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) February 7, 2016
Hear them defending torture methods #GOPDebate
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) February 7, 2016
Cruz with a very detailed answer, unsurprisingly. #GOPDebate
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 7, 2016