Man legalized torture under President Bush, but now he’s worried about Trump?

08 Feb, 2017 by Alexandria Willis

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It is amazing how quickly someone’s opinion can change depending on self-interest and popular opinion. John Yoo is a lawyer made most famous for his work following the torturous interrogations of the terrorists involved with the attacks on 9/11. He played a huge role in providing the legal justification for the executive decisions made by President George Bush and his team. Now, however he seems to be standing on some moral high ground in condemning Donald Trump and his policies. It feels ironic to say the least.

He said concerning President Donald Trump:

In his Inaugural Address, Mr. Trump did not acknowledge that his highest responsibility, as demanded by his oath of office, is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” Instead, he declared his duty to represent the wishes of the people and end “American carnage,” seemingly without any constitutional restraint.

It feels hypocritical. Doesn’t it? But it doesn’t end there. John Yoo has been particularly vocal about the importance of President Trump not expanding the branches of the executive branch. And yet, that is exactly what he helped do a decade ago when he worked under President George W. Bush.

Rare News puts it perfectly when they explain the hypocrisy of this man lecturing Donald Trump. In regards to his work 10 years ago they said:

Over a decade after those opinions were written and used by the Bush White House as legal cover for an unprecedented expansion of executive power, John Yoo is now lecturing the current commander-in-chief to be careful about stepping over his constitutional boundaries. Perhaps if Yoo had distanced himself from his past stint in government, we could take him seriously. But to this day, he remains confident that his legal judgments were perfectly reasonable — that waterboarding, stuffing human beings into small boxes for hours, slapping prisoners to get their attention, and hanging them from the ceiling, were interrogation tactics on the right side the law.

Instead of lecturing Trump, Yoo should keep quiet, stay in his Ivory Tower as a law professor, and stop insulting our intelligence.

Exactly.

John Yoo spoke Wednesday, July 21, 2010, at the Sacramento Press Club in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee/MCT via Getty Images)