Today has been a diligent reminder that Republicans are deathly afraid of evil-doers and they’re also not big fans of due process.
“If they bring him to the U.S., they will Mirandize this guy, and it will be the biggest mistake for the ages to read this guy his Miranda rights,” Graham told reporters, warning against a civilian trial.
Lindsey Graham: if this man is allowed to remain silent, we’re all fucked.
“I think he should be taken to Guantánamo. It’s where our detention facilities are,” said McCain. “It’s totally inappropriate to keep him anyplace else.”
John McCain: if this man is put on trial inside the United States, hell will follow with him.
“At times, this administration has been more interested in the politics of the war on terrorism than the execution of it, and we have not had an articulable detention policy in six years,” Rubio said in a statement.
Marco Rubio: we don’t have a coherent detention policy. No shit?
McConnell says Khatallah "needs to be interrogated extensively." Adds that he shouldn't get a lawyer or be read his rights.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 17, 2014
Between Lindsey Graham saying that we need to “have some quality time with this guy” and Mitch McConnell calling for him to be “interrogated extensively,” we have calls for torture with a wink and a nod and a tip of the hat. Lindsey Graham isn’t saying we should torture him, he’s just sayin’.
It should be noted that Marco Rubio is partially correct in that our detention policies don’t make a whole lot of sense, but it should also be noted that he and his colleagues are chiefly responsible for our incoherence.
As we’ve covered here extensively in the past, Congress has repeatedly voted against closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, they voted against closing it as recently as last month. Every time the Obama administration has taken steps to close the prison, Congress has thrown up roadblocks.
If congressional Republicans didn’t their piss their pants and forget their name for two hours every time someone mentions bringing detainees into the United States to stand trial, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. But here we are. They’ll say “not in my backyard” and then point fingers at the Obama administration.
If you take a stroll down memory lane, you’d find Lindsey Graham and John McCain making the exact same arguments against infamous Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.