Donald Trump doubles down on torture, war crimes

(Image credit: Fox News)

last updated 4 March 2016

At Thursday's Fox News debate, moderator Brett Baier told Donald Trump that almost 100 national security experts signed a letter pledging to actively oppose Trump, in part because of his support for torture, and that top generals and intelligence officials have said that the military will refuse to follow Trump's orders on torture, "because they've been trained to turn down and refuse illegal orders. So what would you do, as commander in chief, if members of the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders?"

"They won't refuse," Trump said. "They're not going to refuse me." Even if the orders violated the law? Baier asked. Trump answered that Ted Cruz was waffling on waterboarding at an earlier debate, and when they asked him, "I said, it's fine, and if we want to go stronger, I'll go stronger, too. Because, frankly, that's the way I feel." Baier asked Trump about his plan to kill the children and families of terrorists, a war crime. "I'm a leader, I've always been a leader, I've never had any problem leading people," Trump said. "If I say do it, they're going to do it." Watch the exchange below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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