Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Newsmax TV on Thursday he will not budge on his position Gina Haspel should not be CIA director, saying her history of working in the agency's torture program sends a bad message to the world.
"I don't think we should reward someone who is involved with torture and make them the head of the CIA," Paul told Thursday's "America Talks Live." "It sends a terrible signal to the world, it's not who we are as Americans."
President Donald Trump nominated Haspel to serve as CIA director, but the move is being criticized because Haspel oversaw a CIA black site in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to torture. It has been reported Haspel helped destroy dozens of videotapes that showed terror suspects being tortured.
"They didn't leave prisoners here, because it's illegal in our country to do that," Paul said of the CIA's post-9/11 intelligence-gathering method of using black sites. "They flew them to an undisclosed site, they flew around the world, secretly dropped them in another country that was more permissive to torture, and then proceeded to torture them.
"I have no inclination to change my mind on Haspel."
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