The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



Donald Trump also backed Ted Cruz's proposal on Tuesday to patrol Muslim neighborhoods. | Getty Trump: Torture could have prevented the Brussels attacks

Donald Trump on Tuesday speculated that harsh interrogation techniques, including torture, could have helped prevent the terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday that killed at least 31 and wounded hundreds more.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Trump about Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, who was captured in Belgium last week and is reportedly talking with investigators.

“Well you know he may be talking, but he’ll talk a lot faster with the torture," Trump said, remarking that if he would have talked sooner, perhaps Tuesday's attacks could have been prevented.

When Blitzer pointed out the military's stated opposition to waterboarding, Trump surmised that they secretly supported it and only said that they opposed it for political reasons. "I think they’re told to say that politically. I believe in it 100 percent," he declared.

Responding to the notion that he would be changing international law in order to legally waterboard suspected enemy combatants, Trump remarked that he would suggest the "eggheads" who came up with the law should flip to CNN, which as Trump spoke played footage from the attacks.

"And I would be willing to bet, when I’m seeing all of the bodies laying all over the floor, including young, beautiful children, laying dead on the floor, I would say if they watched that, maybe, just maybe they’ll approve waterboarding and other things," he said.

Trump also backed Ted Cruz's proposal on Tuesday to patrol Muslim neighborhoods as a new security measure. “Yes, I would. I think that’s a good idea," Trump said in the telephone interview.

Asked how he would find out where Muslim neighborhoods are, Trump said, "You do it. You do it."

“Let me tell you: I bet you the local police know much more [about] what’s going on than anybody would understand," Trump said, adding that like gangs, "local police know plenty about the Muslims, too."

Trump also decried the "soft country" the United States has become, like other countries. "It's going to get a lot tougher. Watch. Because people can't take this," Trump predicted.

