Gina Haspel Nominated as CIA Director

True to form Trump has done something controversial both in the public and political sphere. Trump nominated Gina Haspel as the new CIA director, and her predecessor Mike Pompeo has been confirmed as the new Secretary of State.

While picking a woman to run one of the largest intelligence agencies in the world seems progressive, in the political sphere, Haspel has a past that some cannot get over.

Haspel has been with the CIA for 30 years and in that time she has served many directors, under both Bush and Obama. During her time under Bush, she participated in the interrogation program that the George W. Bush administration rolled out after 911. This participation is what some members of the Senate believe makes her unfit to be a director.

Though she has said that she does not plan or have a desire to reinstate this program there are those who do not believe her. Senator John McCain, once a presidential candidate, who was tortured as a Vietnamese P.O.W. during the Vietnam war says because Haspel refused to acknowledge the “torture’s immorality” her nomination should be denied.

Others disagree two senators both from states that voted Trump, have backed Haspel’s nomination. One of the Senators, Joe Donnelly from Indiana, has been very vocal in his support of Haspel, he says he has spoken with her on a number of topics and believes she is just what the CIA and the country needs. He believes she has learned from her past in a way that will help her lead the agency into the future.