Former Obama adviser David Axelrod was speechless on Meet the Press Sunday after former Mitt Romney adviser Dan Senor questioned the ethical grounds on which President Obama orders indiscriminate drone strikes in lieu of CIA interrogation.
Responding to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion that the Bush-era CIA interrogation tactics now under fire from Senate Democrats "worked and saved lives," Axelrod said that the tactics themselves, not the release of the Senate Intelligence committee report, endangered American lives overseas.
"We did things in dark places that resulted in us disrupting mass casualties, terror attacks," Senor said. "That part is indisputable."
Axelrod attempted to make a connection between the discontinuation of CIA enhanced interrogation techniques and the lack of a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
"We have not had these tactics for six years," Axelrod said. "So we haven't had a major attack in six years."
"You know what we have been doing? We've been using drones to blow up terror operatives," Senor said.
Axelrod had no response. Instead, he pushed Senor to answer the question (which Axelrod did not actually ask) of why the U.S. has not witnessed a major attack during Barack Obama’s presidency.
"I’m answering the question," Senor said.