Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales still doing ‘homework’ on Clinton and Trump
With only two months till the presidential election, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales is still doing his “homework.”
Gonzales, author of the new memoir “True Faith and Allegiance: A Story of Service and Sacrifice in War and Peace,” told Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga that he is still deciding on whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton should be the next commander in chief.
“Am I worried about things that [Donald Trump] said during the campaign? Yeah, I am,” Gonzales said. “But I also want to remind your viewers that these are things said in a campaign. … Words matter much more when you’re president of the United States.”
With the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Sunday, Gonzales worries “that [America] may be less safe today” with the rise of lone-wolf terrorists, who are harder to detect.
“We are more safe in respect to attacks by hijack aircraft,” said Gonzales. “The next attacker of a 9/11 scale attack is likely to be an American citizen, someone who looks like you and I, speaks perfect English, can travel back and forth freely within this country, and that presents unique challenges to our law enforcement and intelligence communities.”
When asked about “enhanced interrogation” techniques used during the Bush administration, Gonzales said the government should use tactics “that are effective, that are necessary and that are lawful.”
“If [people] think waterboarding is torture, I’m probably not going to change [their] mind about that,” said Gonzales. “What I want [people] to understand is how hard we worked to meet President George W. Bush’s directive that we are going to abide by the Constitution and we are going to abide by the laws passed by our Congress.”
Gonzales also weighed in on a newly released email from former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Clinton in 2009. Powell wrote how he used a personal computer connected to private phone lines while at the State Department.
“It appears that Colin Powell did what he did or his advice was based upon convenience for him,” said Gonzales. “The fact that she would rely upon Colin Powell’s advice to me is also kind of interesting or curious because he’s a secretary of state, he’s not a lawyer, and so why wouldn’t she check with the attorney general? Why wouldn’t she check with the lawyers at the State Department? That’s who she should have checked with, not necessarily reliance upon Secretary Powell.”
