--- title: John McCain Slams Steven Bradbury Over Torture Memos description: John McCain railed against the confirmation of Steven Bradbury as general counsel of the Department of Transportation over views on torture canonical: https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-15T16:45:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:15:18.654Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain Slams Steven Bradbury Over Torture Memos og:description: "There can be no justification for torture" og:url: https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef647da4cfd58d1/6988e5f522fb856fefe23b40/john-mccain.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: U.S. Military Holds Special Twilight Tattoo Performance In Honor Of John McCain og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Slams Steven Bradbury Over Torture Memos twitter:description: "There can be no justification for torture" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef647da4cfd58d1/6988e5f522fb856fefe23b40/john-mccain.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Tried to Block a Routine Trump Appointment Over Torture > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=28be3339-6aa0-4e03-94df-9e3c672ba221&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 15, 2017 4:45 PM UTC  U.S. Sen. John McCain accompanied by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley U.S. Sen. John McCain accompanied by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Nov 15, 2017 4:45 PM UTC Sen. John McCain took to Medium Wednesday to rail against the confirmation of Steven Bradbury as general counsel of the Department of Transportation based on what McCain sees as Bradbury’s past [justifications for torture](http://time.com/4247397/donald-trump-waterboarding-torture/). While Bradbury was at the Department of Justice, he helped author a series of memos that provided legal justification for 13 so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, forced nudity and humiliation, physical force, cramped quarters and more. Bradbury’s role in these memos, McCain [wrote in a post titled “There Can Be No Justification For Torture](https://medium.com/@SenatorJohnMcCain/there-can-be-no-justification-for-torture-2f2e2307ccb1),” precludes him from the public trust necessary to hold political office. “I cast my vote against Mr. Bradbury not because I believe him to be unpatriotic or malevolent, but because I believe that what is at stake in this confirmation vote, much like what we stand to gain or lose in the war we are still fighting, transcends the immediate matter before us,” McCain wrote. “Ultimately, this is not about Mr. Bradbury. This is not about terrorists. This is about us — who we are and who we will be in the future.” [McCain famously spent more than five years in captivity during the Vietnam War](http://time.com/3963612/donald-trump-john-mccain-military-service/), during which time he was subjected to conditions that, as he alluded in the Medium post, amounted to torture. “Most people have never been tightly bound, made to remain in a stress position, and deprived of sleep for 48 hours,” McCain wrote. “Let me assure my colleagues: anyone who has suffered such treatment will know they’ve been tortured.” Bradbury, who served as acting head of the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel from 2005 to 2009, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, [_Politico_ reports](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/14/bradbury-confirm-torture-memos-244897). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/"},"headline":"John McCain Tried to Block a Routine Trump Appointment Over Torture","datePublished":"2017-11-15T16:45:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:15:18.654Z","description":"\"There can be no justification for torture\"","url":"https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/","keywords":["John McCain","politics","torture","trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef647da4cfd58d1/6988e5f522fb856fefe23b40/john-mccain.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef647da4cfd58d1/6988e5f522fb856fefe23b40/john-mccain.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Military Holds Special Twilight Tattoo Performance In Honor Of John McCain","caption":"U.S. Military Holds Special Twilight Tattoo Performance In Honor Of John McCain","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/john-mccain/","name":"John McCain"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5025470/john-mccain-steven-bradbury-torture/","name":"John McCain Tried to Block a Routine Trump Appointment Over Torture"}}]}] ```