Torture, like all other crimes, can be justified. If someone needs to commit it to save lives, they are certainly able to.

And then, just like someone who kills someone in self defense or whatnot, they should immediately be arrested and tried by a jury of their peers. In the astonishingly unlikely circumstances that said torture was justified to save someone’s life, it already qualifies as ’self-defense’.

Of course, this requires some sort of open process were we can actually see the torture or the entire thing’s moot.

I don’t know about Clinton, but this kind of ‘tough guy’ talk is sometimes used by Democrats to show they can be as tough on terror as Republicans.
Very bad policy, whatever the reason.