Chuck Schumer On "Torture" - "Do What You Have To Do"

May 13, 2009

During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8th, 2004, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) discusses harsh interrogation methods, saying to Attorney General John Ashcroft: "And I'd like to...

During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8th, 2004, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) discusses harsh interrogation methods, saying to Attorney General John Ashcroft:

"And I'd like to interject a note of balance here. There are times when we all get in high dudgeon. We ought to be reasonable about this. I think there are probably very few people in this room or in America who would say that torture should never, ever be used, particularly if thousands of lives are at stake. Take the hypothetical: If we knew that there was a nuclear bomb hidden in an American city and we believed that some kind of torture, fairly severe maybe, would give us a chance of finding that bomb before it went off, my guess is most Americans and most senators, maybe all, would say, Do what you have to do. So it's easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used. But when you're in the foxhole, it's a very different deal."