Sen. John McCain said he would stop any efforts President Donald Trump made to reintroduce torture or other harsh interrogation tactics. | Getty McCain warns Trump: 'We are not bringing back torture'

Sen. John McCain on Wednesday vowed to stand against reported efforts by President Donald Trump to ease limits on the treatment of suspected terrorists in U.S. custody, reminding Trump that Congress has passed an anti-torture law.

“The president can sign whatever executive orders he likes,” McCain said in a statement responding to a New York Times report that Trump has drafted an executive order paving the way for the return of George W. Bush-era detainee treatment standards. “But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America.”


The Arizona Republican, who was captured during his Navy service in Vietnam and tortured during more than five years of imprisonment, has long criticized Trump's campaign-trail promise to resurrect waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics ended under former President Barack Obama. “I don't give a damn what” Trump wants to do, McCain said in mid-November.

McCain and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) authored an amendment to the defense authorization bill signed by Obama last year that establishes the Army Field Manual as the standard for tactics used to question detainees and allows the International Red Cross access to terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. That amendment largely codified Obama executive orders from 2009 that also made those two changes to interrogation policies that raised global alarms during the George W. Bush administration.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican leader, said Wednesday that the restrictions on waterboarding and other harsh tactics "is settled law ... and I don't anticipate that will change."

“With respect to torture, that’s banned," Thune said at a press conference at the GOP's policy retreat in Philadelphia. "The Army Field Manual makes that very clear, and the law now is tied to the Army Field Manual.”

Any Trump move to revive banned interrogation tactics such as waterboarding without changing the law would contradict assurances given to senators by both Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions and newly confirmed Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo.

Sessions said during his confirmation hearing that the 2015 law “makes it absolutely improper and illegal to use waterboarding … or any other form of torture.” Pompeo told Feinstein during his confirmation hearing that “I can’t imagine” Trump would ask him to go beyond Army Field Manual-approved interrogation tactics.

McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, added that Defense Secretary James Mattis responded to written questions from his panel by promising to keep the field manual as “the single standard” for treatment of detainees in custody.

“I am confident these leaders will be true to their word,” McCain said, referring to Mattis and Pompeo.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the intelligence committee's senior Democrat, said in a Wednesday statement that he had spoken earlier in the day with Mattis and Pompeo to underscore "that any attempt by this Administration to restart torture is absolutely unacceptable, and I will strongly oppose it." Warner also promised to seek "ironclad assurances" to maintain current interrogation standards from former Indiana GOP Sen. Dan Coats, Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence.

Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.