Sen. Mike Lee asked Utah Republicans if they’d rather be forced to listen to KSL radio or be waterboarded — a brutal integration technique that simulates the feeling of drowning and has widely been described at torture.
“Utah Republicans, if you were locked in a room forced to (a) listen to the NPR for an entire day, (b) listen to KSL for an entire day, or (c) undergo waterboarding, which option would you choose?,” Lee inquired to his “BasedMikeLee” following on X on Saturday night.
Lee’s question followed Republican backlash against a social post made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-owned radio stationed on Thursday that said the Utah GOP had “been running into tough times” and asked its followers if they were “tired of the Republican Party’s antics?”
![[Screenshot taken June 16, 2024] A screenshot of the Sen. Mike Lee's X account. On June 15, 2024, the Utah Republican asked his followed if they're prefer to listen to KSL, NPR, or be tortured.](https://www.sltrib.com/resizer/v2/RU2BQR4XZ5HXTEJ77DUKDIHQAI.png?auth=46314e532f19f7247a1e6be0613c79664cd1ef871137b266ee1417f0ac06b6f9)
Waterboarding, widely considered torture, is an interrogation technique that involves putting a piece of material over an individual’s mouth and noise and then pouring water over the material. The practice gained global criticism from politicians, American military veterans, human rights organizations and the United Nations after it was disclosed that U.S. official were using the technique on war prisoners in the post-9/11 era.
According to a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report from 2014, waterboarding was describe by U.S. officials as a way to “induce a sensation of drowning.” At one time, the report found, the interrogation technique was described as evolving into a “a series of near drownings.”
The Senate report described the CIA’s post-9/11 integration techniques, which included waterboard, as “torture.”
Nearly 86% of 931 respondents to Lee’s informal poll said they’d prefer waterboarding.
“Waterboarding seems to be enjoying an early lead — over listening to either KSL or NPR,” the senator, a member of the LDS Church, said on X. “I totally understand.”
When asked by The Salt Lake Tribune to comment on the post and if Lee would prefer to be waterboarded or forced to listen to the Utah-based radio station, the senator’s communications directer, Billy Gribbin, responded with a meme saying the poll was a joke.
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