Defending Waterboarding & Bucking Blunt

WISDOM CARVES A DIFFERENT PATH

Republican congressional candidate Jeff Wisdom clearly separated himself from Rep. Roy Blunt on the day he launched his campaign. He candidly said he would carve a different path than Blunt in Washington and added that he doesn't think the average 7th District citizen feels like they've been represented the past 12 years.

*WATCH IT ABOVE*

"My intention is not to go there and spend the next 20 to 30 years of my life," Wisdom said, though he stopped short of taking a term limit pledge. "I believe that that limits democracy."

ON BLUNT:
"I believe Roy Blunt went to Washington D.C. and became part of the problem in Washington D.C. I think that he became beholden to a lot of special interests and I don't intend for that to happen . . . I just believe Roy Blunt became part of the establishment, and I don't want to be part of the establishment."



In the second clip, Wisdom backs waterboarding as an "effective tactic to gain information from detainees."

"I believe that we have gathered some very good information that likely prevented terrorist attacks on our soil through waterboarding," Wisdom said.

BUT critics have said there's no evidence waterboarding has ever worked:

"If there was an instance that these interrogations lead directly to the savings of lives and they could prove it, this information would be leaked by now," said former CIA officer Bob Baer on Hardball Wednesday night.

Wisdom served for a year in Iraq as part of the Navy Reserve.

He said he worries about a hasty pull-out in Iraq, but backs President Obama's policy to send more troops to Afghanistan.

*FULL CLIP ABOVE*