Gotta give him points for bravery: former Bush Department of Justice lawyer and “torture memo” author John Yoo submitted himself to Jon Stewart’s questioning on The Daily Show last night (insert cheesy “enhanced interrogation” joke here), and it was a real doozy.While the bulk of it was a mind-numbingly convoluted back-and-forth over what is and isn’t torture, whether or not there are any legal or historical precedents for America’s waging of the war on terror post-9/11, and how much executive power is too much; there was one crystal clear and very revealing gem buried in part 2 of the interview: Yoo says he never actually spoke to President George W. Bush about the legal justifications he was tasked by the administration with developing. Said Yoo, “I’ve never met the man.”
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=132150