Gina Haspel was confirmed in a bipartisan Senate vote Thursday, clearing the way for her to become the first woman to lead the CIA.
Haspel has served at the CIA for three decades and is currently the acting director. She succeeds Mike Pompeo, who left the CIA post to take the job of secretary of state.
The Senate approved her in a 54-45 vote despite strenuous objections from Democrats, a handful of Republicans and some outside groups who said her tenure overseeing enhanced interrogation practices more than a decade ago disqualify her for the job.
Haspel’s nomination was ultimately supported by a handful Democrats, including Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, of Virginia.
Three Republicans opposed Haspel, among them Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war tortured by the North Vietnamese. But McCain did not vote, as he is still undergoing cancer treatment in his home state.
Haspel’s supporters said her actions supervising the program were lawful and approved by top CIA officials as well as a small bipartisan group of top congressional leaders briefed at the time. They also said those steps helped save lives.
“The safety and security of the American people depend on capable intelligence leadership,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Gina Haspel is the right woman at the right time. Senators on both sides of the aisle agree.”
A broad array of top former and current intelligence officials, including former CIA directors, lined up to endorse Haspel. That helped ease her confirmation despite questions by Democrats who faulted her for not forcefully denouncing the use of now-banned enhanced interrogation during her confirmation hearing last week.
Haspel worked to convince doubtful lawmakers by saying she would not revive the program, while at the same time acknowledging the practice helped yield valuable intelligence in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For some lawmakers, it wasn’t enough.
“Ms. Haspel has still not fully acknowledged torture is wrong,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said, announcing her opposition.
Haspel sent a letter earlier this week to Warner in which she said the CIA should not have ever used the techniques, which included waterboarding and other practices deemed to be forms of torture.
Warner had told the Washington Examiner he questioned whether Haspel would refuse a hypothetical order by President Trump to restart the program.
Haspel assured him she would not restart the program, Warner said.
“I believe she is someone who can and will stand up to the president, who will speak truth to power if this president orders her to do something illegal or immoral, like a return to torture,” Warner said in a Senate floor speech. “I believe this not just because she’s told me so, or because she wrote it in a letter, or even because she said it under oath in front of the committee. I believe it because I’ve heard it from people who worked with her and who have known her for years.”
