Carper Opposes Mike Pompeo to Head CIA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and senior member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released the following statement after the Senate voted to approve Mike Pompeo as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“During the course of his campaign, President Trump called for our nation to use torture and break our historic international agreement with Iran to end their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The next CIA Director should be a bulwark against this irresponsible agenda, which I believe will impair our ability to lead the international community with moral clarity. The next CIA Director must be unequivocally opposed to torture. We should never revisit this dark chapter in our nation’s history. We also need a CIA Director that can be counted on to objectively monitor our international nuclear agreement with Iran, and continue to make progress on peacefully diffusing the threat of an arms race in the Middle East.

“During his confirmation hearing, Rep. Pompeo attempted to strike a different tone when he was asked about a number of issues, including torture and the Iran Deal. A brief committee hearing, however, cannot outweigh his longstanding partisanship on national security matters, his inability to unequivocally close the door on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, and his public support for dismantling our historic agreement with Iran. While I hope I am wrong, I am not convinced that Rep. Pompeo will be able to leave his partisan track record behind as our next CIA Director and I cannot support his nomination to this critical position.”