SB: If you google it, you will find many publications reporting about trump advocating the use of torture during his campaign. His core admirers loved to hear that.

1- http://time.com/4632952/donald-trump-cabinet-confirmation-hearings-splits/

What Trump has said: In 2015, Trump said he would reinstate waterboarding: “I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they’d do to us,” he said. And in 2016, he defended torture at a Republican debate: “We should go for waterboarding and we should go tougher than waterboarding,” he said.


[Jeff] Sessions: “Congress has taken an action now that makes it absolutely improper and illegal to use waterboarding or any other form of torture in the United States,” Sessions said.


Pompeo: Pompeo said he would not obey orders if Trump asked him to torture. “I can’t imagine that I would be asked that by the President-elect,” he said.


Kelly: Kelly said he disagrees with Trump’s plan to expand acceptable torture methods. “I don’t think we should ever come close to crossing a line we Americans expect to follow in terms of interrogation techniques,” he said.


In confirmation hearings this week, five of the President-elect’s nominees have distanced themselves from some of his remarks on such hot-button topics as foreign policy, immigration and the military.

2- Another source: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/12/politics/trump-cabinet-picks-oppose-torture/index.html

CIA nominee says he would disregard Trump on torture


Rep. Mike Pompeo, Trump's nominee for CIA director, was asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, if he would -- if ordered by President-elect Trump -- restart the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation tactics the that fall outside of army field manual.
"Absolutely not," Pompeo responded.


Pompeo's position against torture techniques at the hearing falls in line with those of other Trump nominees testifying this week. Secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, homeland security nominee retired Gen. John Kelly and attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions all rejected the practice during their hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, putting them at odds with Trump's campaign rhetoric.


In his confirmation hearing Tuesday, Kelly said he would "absolutely" abide by US laws prohibiting the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture. That was a break with Trump's campaign promise to bring back waterboarding and "worse" forms of torture in the fight against terrorism.


Sessions also split with Trump's views on waterboarding. He emphasized that Congress has outlawed the practice since it was used in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks during the George W. Bush administration.

3- Another source: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/press-release/trump-nominees-reject-use-torture

Washington, D.C.—Human Rights First today praised statements made by cabinet nominees during confirmation hearings this week rejecting the use of torture, and reiterates its call for President-elect Trump to immediately and publicly condemn the practice. During questioning this week Senator Jeff Sessions, General John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, and Representative Mike Pompeo all stated that they would abide by laws that ban the use of torture; in an interview last month President-elect Trump revealed that General James Mattis, nominee for secretary of defense, warned him against the use of waterboarding.