President Trump's nominee for CIA chief, Gina Haspel testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Melina Mara
President Trump's nominee for CIA chief, Gina Haspel testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Melina Mara Credit: Washington Post — Melina Mara

Washington — Gina Haspel appears to have secured enough votes to be confirmed as the country’s next CIA director after stating in a letter to a top Democrat that the agency never should have detained terrorist suspects and employed brutal interrogation techniques against them.

In announcing his support for Haspel, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said on Tuesday he had asked her to write down her views because he believed that in one-on-one meetings she had expressed greater regret, and more resolute moral opposition to the agency’s interrogation program than she had communicated during her confirmation hearing last week.

“I believe she is someone who can and will stand up to the president if ordered to do something illegal or immoral — like a return to torture,” Warner said in a statement, citing his past interaction with Haspel and the overwhelming support for her among the agency’s rank and file and the wider intelligence community. He added that he also had “respect” for those “who have made a different decision” about her nomination.

Warner’s support for Haspel provides more opportunity for her to gain the backing of other lawmakers who were conflicted about her nomination. Several Democrats facing tough re-election battles this year, as well as Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, of Arizona, have been caught between the pressures of an administration and agency forcefully lobbying for Haspel’s confirmation and the admonitions of senior senators such as John McCain, R-Ariz., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who have said that a vote for Haspel effectively is telling the world that the United States condones torture.

Minutes after Warner’s announcement, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. — one of the GOP’s prime targets in 2018 — announced that she, too, would be supporting Haspel.

“This was not an easy decision. Ms. Haspel’s involvement in torture is deeply troubling as my friend and colleague, John McCain, so eloquently reminded us,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “However, Ms. Haspel explained to me that the agency should not have employed such tactics in past and has assured me that it will not do so in the future.”