Trump favors torture to fight terrorism; Liz Cheney applauds his plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says that he believes torture works, saying that “we have to fight fire with fire.”

In an interview with ABC News, the president says he will confer with Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA director Mike Pompeo to determine what can and cannot be done legally to combat the spread of radicalism.

He says that radical groups “chop off the citizens’ or anybody’s heads in the Middle East, because they’re Christian or Muslim or anything else.”

Adding, “we have that and we’re not allowed to do anything. We’re not playing on an even field.”

But Trump says, of using torture tactics, “absolutely I feel it works.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Liz Cheney, daughter Dick Cheney,George W. Bush's vice president who advocating enhanced interrogation techniques, jumped into the fray today, applauding Trump’s plan to review interrogation techniques.

The Wyoming Republican, who was elected in November,

told reporters at the congressional GOP retreat in Philadelphia today that she is “very heartened” to learn of the Trump administration move to conduct a sweeping review of how America conducts the war on terror, including possible resumption of banned interrogation methods.

Cheney said that since stopping the enhanced interrogation program “we’re not even in a position anymore frankly where we’re very often capturing people.”

She also said that enhanced interrogation helped lead to the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, a contention that’s widely disputed and was dismissed by a report released by Senate Democrats in 2014. Cheney criticized how that report was conducted.

“Frankly I think it’s the responsibility of any chief executive, any commander in chief, to make sure we use every tool at our disposal to make sure we save lives, understanding it’s not torture,” Cheney said. “The president’s executive order was very clear we don’t torture, we haven’t tortured but what we’re talking about is the ability to get information from people who don’t want to provide information and have information that may well save American lives and prevent attacks.”