Republican lawmaker defends call to torture: 'Me, bin Laden and a baseball bat'

New York state Sen. Greg Ball (R) on Monday doubled down on his call to torture the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, saying that if he had the same opportunity after the attacks September 11, 2011, 'it would have been me Osama bin Laden and a baseball bat."

In a tweet on Friday, Ball had referred to bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev as "scum bag #2" and asked, "Who wouldn’t use torture on this punk to save more lives?"

On Monday, Fox News host Gretchen Carlson asked Ball to respond the firestorm of criticism that he had received after calling for the use of torture.

"At the end of the day, I think a lot of politicians typically are, quite honestly, full of crap, they're scared to say how they feel," he explained. "And I basically said what I believe a lot of red-blooded Americans felt. And it comes down to this: When you talk about terrorism, information matters. And if getting that information, including torture, would save one innocent life -- including that we've seen children -- you know, would you use torture? And I can tell you I would be first in line."

"You know, I don't' know how many -- if you look at Osama bin Laden -- how many New Yorkers wouldn't have appreciated at least 30 minutes in a room alone with Osama bin Laden," he added. "I know I would. It would have been me, Osama bin Laden and a baseball bat."

"And maybe I'm not going to be a career politician, maybe you shouldn't be honest, but this is how I feel. And in the United States of America we have people who believe we can play patty-cake."

Watch the video below from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast April 22, 2013.