Former Republican Congressman and current conservative radio host Joe Walsh appeared on CNN Wednesday morning to discuss his tweets and comments in the aftermath of the release of the Senate’s report on the CIA’s use of torture. Walsh, who has a history of making inflammatory and offensive comments, especially regarding Muslims, sent out a series of tweets Tuesday calling Muslims “animals” and saying he was happy the report was released because America should use torture against others, specifically radical Islamists.
Below are a handful of Walsh’s tweets after the release of the report.
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Look, quit navel gazing on this CIA torture report. Yea we engage in torture. Good. Big deal. Now go focus on defeating the Islamic enemy.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 9, 2014
CIA torture report released. Good. I’m ok torturing terrorists & I want terrorists to know we’ll do anything to them. http://t.co/iJ9Ru3P3a3 — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 9, 2014
Funny huh? In a world full of Muslims beheading, blowing up innocents, & exterminating Christians, some are accusing the US of war crimes.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 9, 2014
These animals behead innocent people daily, but sure, whatever, I’m sorry some people got water thrown in their face. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 9, 2014
That is just a sampling of what Walsh was throwing around Tuesday regarding the use of torture. The takeaway from Walsh, other than he is a disgusting bigot who only thinks on a binary level, is that he feels America is justified to use torture on Muslims (he doesn’t differentiate between Islamic terrorists and Muslims) because they hate America and are animals. He doesn’t defend it as a way to get meaningful intelligence. No. He just thinks that if other people in the world dislike America then they deserve to be treated harshly and inhumanely.
CNN’s Carol Costello challenged Walsh on his line of thinking. Walsh did not back off of his tweets, instead expanding on them and making sure everyone who was watching knew he was a downright horrible person. At one point in his conversation with Costello, he said it was part of an American hero’s “job description” to use torture techniques like rectal feeding and waterboarding. When Costello seemed taken aback, Walsh reiterated that Muslims are “animals” who behead and exterminate people. Costello then asked, “So we should be animals?” Walsh responded that sometimes you have to act like an animal to defeat one.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Raw Story:
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Walsh has never served a day in the military. He is no longer in Congress because he faced off against Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, in 2012. During his campaign, he said that Duckworth, who lost both legs and part of an arm in Iraq after the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting was hit with a rocket, was not a “true hero” because she had the gall to bring up her service during the election. It is apparent that Walsh is nothing more than a bedwetting chickenhawk who loves to talk tough.
H/T Raw Story
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).