CNN: CIA Director Haspel ‘Iced Out’ of Intel Meeting With Trump Amid Speculation She Could Be Fired
CIA Director Gina Haspel has reportedly been “iced out” of intelligence meetings at the White House.
Haspel, a career CIA official, succeeded former CIA Director Mike Pompeo in the position in 2018, when President Donald Trump appointed Pompeo to serve as secretary of state. But she has drawn ire from conservatives in more recent days, including from the president, who feel she could have done more to tamp down on another CIA staffer’s complaint about Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That complaint sparked a subsequent impeachment effort by congressional Democrats.
“People are not confident that the president is going to keep Gina Haspel around, because he has been complaining about her for months,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted in a report Friday afternoon. “The question is, does he actually bite the bullet and terminate her, just as he did [Defense Secretary Mark Esper] a few days ago?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has taken a more favorable posture toward Haspel, inviting her to his office for a meeting on Tuesday. That prompted Trump confidant Arthur Schwartz to write on Twitter, “Why the hell are Republican senators trying to manipulate [Trump] into keeping Gina Haspel, who undermines Trump and subverts his agenda at every turn?”
He directed the comment at senators include John Cornyn (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), prompting Cornyn to defend himself. “Intelligence should not be partisan,” he wrote in response. “Not about manipulation, it is about preserving impartial, nonpartisan information necessary to inform policy makers and so the can protect the U.S.”
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., took a final shot at Cornyn, writing, “Have you or [Rubio] or [McConnell] actually discussed this with anyone in the Admin. who actually works with her?”
Recommending National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, he added, “Or are you just taking a trained liar’s word for it on everything?”
Watch above CNN.
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