The U.S. "has a death wish," Donald Trump said Monday, pointing to the weekend release of six Guantanamo Bay prisoners, news that a Taliban commander has been allowed to return to Pakistan, and the report about CIA interrogation tactics since 9/11.
"This whole thing on torture not working ... Torture not working?" the billionaire mogul asked incredulously on "Fox & Friends" Monday. "Well, for 5,000 years it's worked, but now it's not working?"
Torture is terrible, "it's horrible, it's violent," Trump said, "but we're living in a violent world."
Trump noted that in medieval times, people would chop off others' heads, and others would say how vicious that must be.
"Well, we're living in these times," said Trump. "We have the same things happening that we used to read in stories and accounts of what took place thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago, where things were so violent. We're using sleep deprivation. They're using chopping off heads. You tell me, by the way, who is going to win that battle?”
Trump also discussed the upcoming Republican takeover of the Senate, noting that Democrats are doing all they can now before things change in January.
"The Republicans have to get tough and they have to know what they're doing," said Trump. "I'm a Republican, but they've finally got to get tough."
Trump also spoke out on comments former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made last week about the United States feeling
empathy with its enemies. He said it is more important the U.S. present a strong face to the world because tough nations respect other tough countries.
"I hit China ... harder than anybody," said Trump, "and I respect them. Their leaders are smarter than our leaders."
China and other nations respect toughness, he said, "because they know they're getting away with murder. These are tough people we're dealing with throughout the world. Really tough. We've got to have a whole different attitude or we're going to be in trouble."
Trump also discussed his aspirations for the presidential race in 2016. Hew said he's waiting to see what will happen and who will run.
"Mitt Romney ran and for some reason he blew it," said Trump. "He just didn't get there. He should have won. That was an election that was more easily won than running against Hillary. Hillary could absolutely be beaten, there is no question about it."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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