“Her integrity — and, significantly, her political impartiality — are unchallenged.”
President Donald Trump is defending Gina Haspel, his nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, who has come under fire because of her involvement in detaining and brutally interrogating terror suspects after 9/11.
Democrats’ obsession with opposing President Trump on all fronts open a new attack this week as CIA Director Gina Haspel goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
That there’s any opposition at all to this supremely qualified candidate only underscores just how petty and partisan the Democrats have become. Haspel would be not only the first woman to head the CIA, but also the first career officer in 52 years to rise through the ranks directly to the director’s chair.
“After 33 years with the agency, Haspel has a record of service in clandestine operations that rivals even the fictional Carrie Mathison of ‘Homeland.'”
The New York Post reports that Haspel has headed four CIA stations across the globe, been a senior official in the CIA’s Russia operation, held several top roles in the division responsible for covert operations and, post-9/11, was a senior-level supervisor in counterterrorism.
According to time.com:
Trump says Democrats want to defeat Haspel’s nomination because she is “too tough on terror.”
Trump calls Haspel “highly respected,” and says she has come under fire “because she was too tough on Terrorists. Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror. Win Gina!”
Haspel’s confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday. She would be the first woman to lead the CIA and is the first career operations officer to be nominated to lead the agency in decades.
This amid news that Haspel offered to withdraw her nomination amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA. That’s according to two senior administration officials.
White House aides on Friday sought out additional details about Haspel’s involvement in the CIA’s now-defunct program of detaining and brutally interrogating terror suspects after 9/11 as they prepared her for Wednesday’s confirmation hearing. This is when she offered to withdraw.
They said Haspel, who is the acting director of the CIA, was reassured that her nomination was still on track and she will not withdraw.”
