On the May 16 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, CNBC chief Washington correspondent and Wall Street Journal national political editor John Harwood, comparing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), claimed, “Rudy Giuliani also has a bit of a claim to combat in a different way, because he was on the ground in 9-11.”
Harwood made this statement when discussing a question during the May 15 Republican presidential debate that posited a hypothetical terrorist attack scenario and asked the candidates “how aggressively [they] would interrogate” detainees “for information about where the next attack might be” and whether they would use “waterboarding” or “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Harwood asserted that McCain -- who argued “the more physical pain you inflict on someone, the more they're going to tell you what they think you want to know” -- delivered the message that " 'I'm tough enough that I can go against my party on this issue. Why? Because I've been in combat. I've been tortured myself.' " But Harwood added that Giuliani -- who advocated using “every method they could think of” -- “also has a bit of a claim to combat in a different way, because he was on the ground in 9-11.”
From the May 16 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
OLBERMANN: And last night was a very conservative audience in the South on the day that Jerry Falwell died. That was the backdrop, the environment. But there was one question here that some found troubling. Let's listen in to this silence when McCain, who has been actually tortured, has credibility and credentials on this that the rest of us only have nightmares about, explained why he was against it and then Giuliani's response to the torture question. Here's the tape first.
[begin video clip]
McCAIN: It's not about the terrorists. It's about us. It's about what kind of country we are. And a fact, the more physical pain you inflict on someone, the more they're going to tell you what they think you want to know. It's about us as a nation.
[...]
GIULIANI: Well, I'd say every method they could think of. And I would support them in doing that, because I've seen what --
[end video clip]
OLBERMANN: [Former Massachusetts] Governor [Mitt] Romney also said he would like to see twice as many terror suspects put in Guantánamo Bay as are now there. Obviously that stuff is going to play very well in Republican primaries, but what happens if a candidate Giuliani or a candidate Romney gets this stuff thrown back in his face by a Democrat next summer or fall?
HARWOOD: Well, look, Keith, I think those answers by both McCain and Giuliani help both men perhaps in the primary and in the general election for different reasons. McCain's core message is tough -- toughness, and that “I'm tough enough that I can go against my party on this issue. Why? Because I've been in combat. I've been tortured myself, as you mentioned.”
Rudy Giuliani also has a bit of a claim to combat in a different way, because he was on the ground in 9-11. And he's saying something popular when he says, “Look, we've got to do anything possible to prevent that from happening again.” Mitt Romney is somebody who doesn't have that credential, and therefore when he says, “I'm going to double the size of Guantánamo and make sure that there are no lawyers available for these terror suspects,” it sound a little bit tinny and thin.
OLBERMANN: John Harwood of CNBC and The Wall Street Journal. Great thanks, John.
HARWOOD: You bet.