President Obama: ‘We Tortured Some Folks’

President Obama tried to put a happy face on his Friday remarks to the media, praising his administration’s excellent job growth, a strengthening economy, and his continued efforts to make the United States a better place for all those “hardworking Americans.”

Unfortunately, however, along with thousands of immigrant children arriving at the U.S. border and the resulting humanitarian crises, Putin mocking him while the Ukraine situation spirals out of control, and the continued war between Israel and Hamas, President Obama had some more bad news:

A looming Senate Intelligence Committee report that says the United States used some techniques that could be called torture in the years following 9/11, reports Yahoo News.

President Obama acknowledged the acts took place before he took office but, yes, we “tortured some folks.” At the same time, President Obama called any efforts to punish those involved “sanctimonious,” and poo-pooed the notion that CIA Director John Brennan should resign:

“When we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation techniques — techniques that I believe, and I think any fair-minded person would believe, were torture — we crossed the line,” President Obama told the press in the White House briefing room. “And that needs to be understood. And accepted. And we have to, as a country, take responsibility for that so that hopefully we don’t do it again in the future.”

The report is believed to contain, in explicit detail, how the United States used techniques such as waterboarding, which meets the international definition of torture, when questioning suspected terrorists about any upcoming attacks and their operations.

President Obama put an end to the alleged torture when he took office in 2008. Even so, many angry liberals called for the heads of those involved. Attorney General Eric Holder moved forward with an investigation into the interrogations program in 2009, but the assigned prosecutor wouldn’t bring any charges.

“In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks,” said President Obama. “I understand why it happened. People did not know whether more attacks were imminent, and there was enormous pressure on our law-enforcement and our national security teams. A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots. But having said all that we did some things that were wrong, and that’s what that report reflects.”

USA Today reports that President Obama also took congressional Republicans to task for adjourning and taking off for their Summer break before brokering an agreement on a border bill to deal with the overwhelming influx of immigrants on the U.S. border, Obama focusing particularly on the humanitarian needs of the children.

The chastising of the Republicans led President Obama to his next point: That he would soon take executive action to deal with the large number of Central American migrant children.

“While they’re out on vacation, I’m going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge, with or without Congress,” said President Obama.

Image via The Inquisitr