Donald Trump says he would bring back waterboarding and interrogation if elected president. Trump would bring back waterboarding He also doubles down on a statement he made about New Jersey Muslims cheering 9/11.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday he would allow U.S. interrogators to waterboard suspected terrorists in the wake of the recent attacks in Paris.

“I would bring it back, yes,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week.”


Trump cited the Islamic State's treatment of its captives to justify bringing back the so-called enhanced interrogation technique — widely considered a form of torture — that the Obama administration has discontinued.

“I would bring it back,” Trump said. “I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they’d do to us, what they’re doing to us, what they did to James Foley when they chopped off his head. That’s a whole different level, and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.”

Trump also doubled down on his call for a database for Muslims entering the U.S., suggesting the migration of Syrian refugees could be a “Trojan horse.” And he brushed aside statistics showing that the majority of those fleeing violence there are women and children.

He also said the U.S. should conduct surveillance of mosques, and he didn't back down from his claims — disputed by police — that Arabs in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

"It was on television. I saw it," Trump said Sunday morning on ABC.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop angrily rejected Trump's assertions.

"Either @realDonald Trump has memory issues or willfully distorts the truth, either of which should be concerning for the Republican Party," Fulop tweeted.

On Sunday morning, Trump also addressed an incident in which a Black Lives Matter protester was reportedly roughed up at a Trump campaign event Saturday in Alabama.

"Maybe he should have been roughed up," Trump told Fox's Ed Henry," because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing."

The protester, according to Al.com, was Mercutio Southall Jr., who was characterized as "a well-known Birmingham activist." According to their account, Southall said that at one point, "he was being pushed and punched from every direction."

Trump’s latest round of inflammatory remarks, however, has not derailed his campaign.

Almost one-third of registered Republican voters and Republican-leading independents said they would support the real estate mogul, according to a new poll by The Washington Post and ABC News. He also showed gains in a new Fox News poll.

Still, he wouldn’t rule out an independent run.

“I will see what happens,” Trump said. “I have to be treated fairly.”