Actor Kiefer Sutherland compared leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a lifelong Democrat and a dedicated segregationist.
“You have to go back to that first Nixon campaign where Wallace managed to garner [9.8 million] Republican votes spewing kind of similar rhetoric to that of Donald Trump,” Sutherland told The Daily Beast.
George Wallace–who famously said in his inaugural address as Alabama governor, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!”–ran for president as a Democrat in 1964 and 1972, and as an Independent in 1968.
“But that’s why he didn’t get the nomination and why he ultimately lost the election,” Sutherland said of Wallace’s ’68 White House bid.
Sutherland, former star of the hit show “24,” also said America has a “moral responsibility” not to torture terror suspects.
“In real life, I believe in due process! You cannot coerce a confession by beating the crap out of them,” Sutherland said. “We are also responsible as a society, and certainly within the context of this country we have a moral responsibility to set the standard of what is acceptable and appropriate.”
“I’m very much against waterboarding and electric torture and anything of that ilk,” he added.
Coincidentally enough, Sutherland played Jack Bauer, Director of Field Ops for a fictional Counter-Terrorist Unit of Los Angeles, in the hit show, “24,” which debuted just after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Sutherland’s scorched earth anti-terroism role in the high velocity action show resulted in what the New York Times called “normalizing torture.”
“I’m very much against waterboarding and electric torture and anything of that ilk,” he added.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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