File photo taken on Oct. 19, 2016 shows Donald Trump participating in the third and final presidential debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States. Former real estate tycoon Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States after a neck-and-neck race with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- After months of calling for torturing terrorism suspects, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump suggested he now did not support bringing back torture tactics in his latest interview with The New York Times.
Trump's reversal on the stance of torture came after his meeting with retired Marine Corps general James Mattis over the weekend, whom, according to Trump, was being "seriously, seriously considered" to be the next U.S. defense chief.
"He (Mattis) said, 'I've never found it (torture) to be useful," The Times quoted Trump as saying.
"Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I'll do better," Trump said Mattis had told him so.
"I was very impressed by that answer," said Trump, adding that he concluded that torture was "not going to make the kind of a difference that a lot of people are thinking."
Trump constantly called for reintroducing waterboarding and other torture when interrogating terrorism suspects in his presidential campaign. He once even floated the idea of killing family members of terrorist suspects.
So far, Trump's picks for vice president, CIA director and national security advisor had all called for reintroduction of torture tactics to the upcoming Trump administration's counterterrorism toolbox.
