With today's release of the summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, Marco Rubio showed he's not ready for prime time.
John McCain, in contrast, demonstrated adult leadership.
Last night, Rubio with Idaho Republican Senator Jim Risch released a statement to condemn the report written after a six-year review of six million classified documents as neither "serious nor constructive."
The duo voted against the report because it could endanger American lives, contribute to propaganda against the United States by our enemies, and damage U.S. foreign policy and counterterrorism efforts.
The potential Republican presidential nominee apparently does not feel the American people deserve the right to know what goes on in behalf of their name.
But if CIA wrongdoing is swept under the rug, how will reform come about? Rubio doesn't seem to understand there are no secrets in the age of the Internet. Does the name Julian Assange ring a bell? America would have lost all credibility if the report was whitewashed and then the truth emerged on the Internet.
By trashing the report as one that divided the Committee' s Republicans and Democrats, Rubio is playing the tired old game of partisan sniping that has damaged the standing and respect of the US Congress.
Torture victim McCain eloquently spoke from the floor of the Senate about the need to release the report:
"The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless,” he said.
McCain went on to knock the Cheney/Bush justification of the enhanced interrogation techniques as ways to gather information.
“What might come as a surprise, not just to our enemies, but to many Americans, is how little these practices did to aid our efforts to bring 9/11 culprits to justice and to find and prevent terrorist attacks today and tomorrow."
The Senator said the real surprise is the summary "contradicts the many assurances provided by intelligence officials on the record and in private that enhanced interrogation techniques were indispensable in the war against terrorism."
It's too bad 78-year-old McCain isn't running for the White House (minus his old sidekick albatross) in 2016.
President Obama claims he banned the torture practices in 2009.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
Public Strategies Washington has added Abbie Sorrendino, a former aide to now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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