The White House on Wednesday emphasized bipartisan support from former intelligence chiefs for Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee for CIA director, who faces a tough Senate confirmation hearing next week.
Ms. Haspel, currently deputy director at the spy agency, has the support of former CIA directors Leon Panetta, John Brennan and Michael Hayden, as well as former Obama administration Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Mr. Brennan and Mr. Clapper, especially, have been harsh critics of Mr. Trump.
“In a time where there’s so many national-security concerns, we think it’s incredibly important that Gina move expeditiously through the confirmation process,” said Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs.
Ms. Haspel, 61, would be the first woman to lead the CIA, and the first director to rise from the ranks of a case officer since William Colby in 1973. The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing for her next Wednesday.
But with Republicans holding a 51-49 majority, her nomination appears in jeopardy. Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, has voiced his opposition, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, is seriously ill and not expected to vote when the nomination comes the floor.
Mr. Short said of Mr. Paul, “we hope that he will keep an open mind. Unfortunately in this environment, we expect that every vote is close.”
As a CIA operative for 33 years, much of Ms. Haspel’s work has been classified. Democrats object to her role in the interrogation of terrorism suspects, which included waterboarding during the administration of George W. Bush. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, has called her “a willing participant in one of the darkest episodes in the CIA’s history.”
With much of Ms. Haspel’s background unknown to the public, the administration has been declassifying some records about her service in an effort to persuade senators about her qualifications for the top job.
Last month, the CIA declassified a disciplinary review from 2011 that found Ms. Haspel didn’t order the destruction of tapes of interrogations containing alleged evidence of torture. The decision was made by her supervisor, who was reprimanded.
The declassified records also detailed a chance encounter that Ms. Haspel had with Mother Teresa in the late 1980s. She was working at an undisclosed location when the late missionary — declared a saint by the Vatican in 2016 — sought to speak to President Ronald Reagan about wheat shortages. Through Ms. Haspel’s actions, the State Department arranged the phone call, and Mother Teresa later brought Ms. Haspel to tour an orphanage.
Mr. Short said the administration will likely declassify more of her records as the confirmation vote nears.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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