Waterboarding surfaces at debate and divides Republican hopefuls

Donald Trump certainly isn’t trying to hedge on whether he’d support using waterboarding to combat terrorism.

When pressed by interviewer George Stephanopoulos if that meant the USA employing similar methods of beheading captors, Mr Trump responded: “We’re going to do things beyond waterboarding… perhaps, if that happens to come”.

“They’re chopping off heads of Christians and many other people in the Middle East”, said Trump, according to CNN.

The bombastic billionaire on Sunday doubled down on his call for increasing harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, explaining that he wanted to “go a lot further than waterboarding”.

When asked if he would bring it back, Cruz stated, “I would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use, and indeed -“.

“I would bring back waterboarding”, Trump told Saturday night’s debate audience in Manchester, N.H.

However, Trump also said that waterboarding is permissible because of the information it yields – something experts say is untrue.

Trump’s proclamation wasn’t matched by any of the other candidates onstage, with Ted Cruz suggesting waterboarding should be used sparingly, Jeb Bush saying it shouldn’t be brought back at all and Marco Rubio pivoting and yelling about President Obama’s move to close Guantanamo. But I would be very much in favor of going beyond waterboarding. It should also be noted that members from both major parties were leading members of the chorus of horror and disapproval that helped to end the waterboarding and similar practices when first they were revealed to the public.

New Hampshire, where Mr Trump maintains a lead over Republican rivals in the United States nominating contest for the November 8 election, casts its primary ballots on Tuesday, the week after Iowa kicked off the process.