Ryan, McConnell signal GOP won't change torture laws

PHILADELPHIA — House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated Thursday that congressional Republicans are not interested in changing the definition of what kinds of interrogation practices constitute torture.

“I believe virtually all of my members are comfortable with the state of the law on that issue,” McConnell said during a press conference ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Republican retreat happening here.


“And torture is illegal,” added Ryan. “We agree with it not being legal."

Their comments come as Trump has signaled he intends to review interrogation practices for terror suspects. Trump repeatedly said during the 2016 campaign that American interrogation practices should be toughened, though he appointed a secretary of defense who has publicly opposed harsher interrogation measures.

McConnell noted that newly-confirmed CIA Director Mike Pompeo, too, has “made it clear he’s going to follow the law.”

Here in Philadelphia, other Republicans were even more adamant against reviving enhanced interrogation tactics. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was held for more than five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, vowed that Congress will not reopen the debate over torture, stressing: "It's the law and it's very clear."

"When he brings up this issue of torture again, I have to speak up -- I have to speak up, I have to -- I have no choice on that," McCain told reporters in Philadelphia. "Because of legislation, because of my own personal experience, because of everything that I've seen."

Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine general, and other senior military officials "will tell you: It. Does. Not. Work," McCain said.

"Torture takes away the most important aspect of the United States of America -- we are a moral nation, we are not like other countries, we don't torture people," he said. "It's not only the issue of torture. It's also the issue of what kind of nation we are."