ABC News(TAMPA, Fla.) — President Obama trumpeted his national security record Tuesday at Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base, saying the U.S. is “breaking the back of ISIL” and diminished the profile of terrorists, calling them “thugs” and “murderers.”
“No foreign terrorist organization has planned and executed an attack on our homeland in the last eight years. And it is not because they didn’t try,” he said, pointing to the intelligence gathered by the men and women at MacDill.
The president also used the speech to target President-elect Donald Trump’s experience and desire to use waterboarding as an interrogation technique.
Obama said staying “true to our laws” strengthens America and prohibiting torture like waterboarding has not led to a decrease in intelligence.
He hailed diplomatic solutions like the Iran nuclear accord as a strategy that has made America safer.
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