Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as the Senate moves to vote on the nomination to head the CIA, here is the bottom line. While the American people have been told that Gina Haspel likes Johnny Cash and talked to Mother Teresa, Ms. Haspel has been exercising the unprecedented power to personally censor any facts about her that might get in the way of her nomination. When the Senate votes on a nomination when all the relevant information is, by design, kept secret, how is this any different than a coverup? I regret to have to say that the surrender of the Senate's responsibility to conduct real oversight of this nominee means that Gina Haspel has been given a pass on all the most important and the most relevant issues. I am going to start with three. The first is this: What was her opinion about the CIA's torture program when it was happening? The Washington Post newspaper reported that unnamed officials were pushing back against accusations that she has supported torture. Now, Ms. Haspel said she learned about the program in 2002. I believe it is especially important to know what her views were later, between 2005 and 2007, when the CIA itself was winding the program down. At that time, did Ms. Haspel call for the program to be continued or expanded? I asked her that in an open intelligence meeting. She did not come close to answering that crucial question. No. 2, what was her role in the destruction of the torture tapes?…”