Trump’s pick to be the next CIA director, Gina Haspel, won approval from the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday morning, receiving a "favorable recommendation" in a 10-5 vote. 
 
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 The committee voted behind closed doors Wednesday morning. 
 
 The positive review sets her up for a final vote before the full Senate in the coming days. She is all but assured to win Senate confirmation and become the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. 
 
 Haspel currently has the support of the majority of Republicans and endorsements from five Democrats. 
 
 The committee's chairman gave her a positive public endorsement after the vote. 
 
 “Gina Haspel is the most qualified person the President could choose to lead the CIA and the most prepared nominee in the 70 year history of the Agency,” Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement. “She has acted morally, ethically, and legally, over a distinguished 30-year career and is the right person to lead the Agency into an uncertain and challenging future. I’m pleased to see the Committee favorably report her nomination to the full Senate, and I look forward to her swift confirmation.” 
 
 Two of the committee's seven Democrats are supporting Haspel, including Virginia's Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel. 
 
 The favorable recommendation comes after Haspel told Congress, in a letter sent to Warner on Monday, that she now feels the spy agency should not have employed the harsh interrogations program used on al Qaeda detainees that included waterboarding. 
 
 In the letter, Haspel also acknowledged that it was "a mistake" for the CIA not to have briefed Congress about the program at its inception. 
 
 "With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken," she wrote in the letter to Warner. 
 
 "While I won't condemn those that made these hard calls, and I have noted the valuable intelligence collected, the program ultimately did damage to our officers and our standing in the world," Haspel continued. 
 
 She had not expressed those feelings publicly, during her contentious confirmation hearing last week. Haspel told the committee that she would not resurrect the agency's controversial rendition, detainee, and interrogation program if she became CIA director, but went no further. 
 
 "I don't believe that torture works," she told the committee, but stopped short of saying whether the interrogation program was "immoral" or should have been carried out. 
 
 After the vote on Wednesday, many Democrats expressed concern about Haspel's nomination. 
 
 "Gina Haspel and the CIA have committed one of the most blatant abuses of power in recent history, aided and abetted by a total failure of Congressional oversight," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oreg., said in a statement Wednesday. "I have very grave concerns about Ms. Haspel and believe her background makes her unsuitable to be CIA director." 
 
 Currently serving as the agency's deputy director, Haspel is well-regarded within the agency. She joined the CIA in 1985 and has held a series of high-ranking positions at the intelligence agency throughout her lengthy career, including senior leadership positions within the agency's National Clandestine Service, which oversees the agency's spy operations overseas and its most covert operations programs. 
 
 At the request of Congress, the CIA has declassified documents shedding light on Haspel's career in covert operations, particularly in her reported role at the agency's "black site" in Thailand. 
 
 The committee's report on the CIA's rendition program said senior al Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were detained at that location. 
 
 The report said that while at the black site in Thailand in 2002, Zubaydah was subjected to the controversial practice of waterboarding 83 times and to other "stress" techniques such as being slammed against walls, deprived of sleep and placed in a coffin-sized box for up to 226 hours. 
 
 Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, are opposed to Haspel's nomination. McCain is not expected to be in Washington for Haspel's confirmation vote. 
 
 In March, McCain noted that Haspel's CIA career "has intersected with the program of so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on a number of occasions." 
 
 "The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," McCain said in a statement. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process." 
 
 Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, McCain's Arizona colleague, has said he's undecided. ||||| (CNN) Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next CIA director , says in a new letter that the CIA should not have conducted then-President George W. Bush's interrogation and detention program where waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics were used on detainees. 
 
 "While I won't condemn those that made these hard calls, and I have noted the valuable intelligence collected, the program ultimately did damage to our officers and our standing in the world," Haspel wrote in the letter, which was obtained by CNN. "With the benefit of hindsight and my experience as a senior agency leader, the enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken." 
 
 Haspel's written comments go further than the statements she made during her public confirmation hearing last week. At the hearing, she said she would not permit the CIA to resume an interrogation program, but she also would not condemn the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation program beyond saying that the CIA was not prepared to run the program and she supported the "stricter moral standard" that is now the law. 
 
 Haspel has been more forthcoming with senators in their private meetings and in the classified hearing she held with the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. A source with knowledge of the classified session told CNN that Haspel told senators she did believe torture is immoral, but she did not want to be seen as publicly criticizing her colleagues at the CIA. 
 
 Haspel also told Warner that it "was a mistake not to brief the entire committee at the beginning" of the interrogation program. 
 
 "CIA needs to have consensus from members of the oversight committees who make decisions on behalf of the American people as their elected representatives on activities that can't be made public," she wrote. 
 
 Haspel's confirmation has been a difficult fight because of her role in the interrogation program, which critics say amounted to torture. Haspel is facing criticism for her supervision of a black site in Thailand where harsh interrogations were conducted along with her role in the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. 
 
 In the letter, Haspel said she would "refuse to undertake any proposed activity that is contrary to my moral and ethical values." 
 
 "As I was able to describe in detail during the classified session, in my role as Deputy and now Acting Director, every operation I review must not only meet those high standards, the activity must also be consistent with CIA's mission, expertise and the law," Haspel wrote. "I do not and would not hesitate to reject a proposal that fails to meet this threshold." 
 
 Haspel's letter comes ahead of a committee vote on her nomination on Wednesday — in which Warner is one of the Democrats still undecided — and appears to be an effort to persuade Democrats still on the fence. 
 
 Warner was one of the Democrats still undecided on her nomination when Haspel sent the letter Monday, but the Virginia Democrat then said in a statement Tuesday he would back her nomination , a key vote that all but ensures she has enough votes for confirmation. 
 
 Warner told reporters before he announced his vote that the letter "better reflected" what Haspel has said in private conversations. "Her letter was closer to some of the individual conversations I've had with her," Warner said. 
 
 Haspel's critics argue she still didn't take any responsibility for her role in the interrogation program or state whether she believed it was immoral. 
 
 "She thinks something like this is going to whitewash a confirmation," said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. 
 
 Haspel is likely to clear the Senate Intelligence Committee vote with the support of Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, in addition to Warner. A Senate floor vote is likely next week, though it's possible it could be as soon as Thursday. Four Democrats -- Manchin, Warner, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp -- have publicly said they will back her nomination. 
 
 Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, say they are opposed to Haspel's confirmation, although McCain is unlikely to be in Washington for the vote while he battles brain cancer. There are still numerous undecided Democrats, many of whom are up for reelection in states that Trump won in 2016. 
 
 Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona is also still undecided. Flake said he has spoken to McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, about the nomination last week, and is still weighing Haspel's nomination. 
 
 "His voice means more than anybody else on this," Flake said of McCain. "But my vote is my own and I'll continue to consider it." 
 
 Flake has asked the Justice Department to make available to all senators a classified Justice Department report from John Durham, the special prosecutor who investigated the tapes destruction but did not press any charges. The report summary was made available to the Senate Intelligence Committee members, but not the full Senate. 
 
 "I'd like to see the summary, but I understand them not wanting to provide it too, I do understand their arguments there," Flake said Monday. 
 
 Several Democrats say the Trump administration has failed to properly provide senators and the public with a full accounting of Haspel's record, including the Durham report and other CIA records. 
 
 Asked about the Durham report, Wyden said Tuesday there are "holes" in her account that senators need to see before voting on her nomination. 
 
 But Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, rejected those calls Monday. "No, no," he said when asked about making the report available to the full Senate, before walking into the Senate chamber. 
 
 Warner would not say Monday whether he thought the report should be provided to the full Senate, beyond saying that he "would like as much transparency as possible." 
 
 "This is an area where the Justice Department has never shared this kind of information in the past," Warner said. ||||| Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on Tuesday joined Sens. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in saying they will support Gina Haspel's confirmation as CIA director. 
 
 WASHINGTON ― Gina Haspel is on track to become CIA director after two key Democratic senators announced they intend to support her confirmation. 
 
 Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he will support Haspel because she had satisfied his concerns in public and behind closed doors about her views regarding the CIA’s so-called enhanced interrogation program, which she helped oversee in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 
 
 In a letter to Warner on Monday, Haspel wrote that the agency shouldn’t have undertaken the controversial program ― in which agents used waterboarding against terror suspects during interrogations. Such methods, she said, “did damage to our officers and our standing in the world.” 
 
 Warner, a centrist whose home state of Virginia houses the CIA’s headquarters, called his decision to support Haspel “difficult,” and said he respected the views of his colleagues who disagree with him. 
 
 “I believe [Haspel] 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. 
 
 Shortly after Warner’s announcement, moderate Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) also said that she intended to support Haspel as CIA director. 
 
 “Ms. Haspel’s involvement in torture is deeply troubling,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “However, Ms. Haspel explained to me that the agency should not have employed such tactics in the past and has assured me that it will not do so in the future.” 
 
 Later in the day, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida became the fifth Democrat to announce backing for Haspel’s confirmation. 
 
 Warner, Heitkamp and Nelson joined Sens. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who said last week they will vote to confirm Haspel. The group of Democrats would put Haspel’s nomination over the top, even if Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) continue to oppose her confirmation. 
 
 Heitkamp, Nelson, Manchin and Donnelly all face what analysts rate as tough re-election battles this year in states President Donald Trump carried in 2016. 
 
 The announcement by the three Democrats on Tuesday capped a contentious debate about America’s use of torture, which became newly relevant after Trump pledged during the presidential campaign to bring back waterboarding and “much worse.” The news is reminiscent of the debate over Mike Pompeo’s nomination to lead the State Department ― when moderate or vulnerable red-state Democrats sided with Republicans to ultimately confirm him as the top U.S. diplomat. 
 
 Democrats own the fact that they helped secure the votes needed to confirm Haspel. Elizabeth Beavers, of the progressive group Indivisible. 
 
 Haspel’s initial reluctance last week to condemn the CIA’s past interrogation techniques during a public hearing with lawmakers spurred McCain, who was tortured while in captivity during the Vietnam War, to announce his opposition to her nomination. But he failed to sway many of his GOP colleagues, who pointed to Haspel’s large list of endorsements from the intelligence community. 
 
 “I think it would have been helpful if John had been here in the [private, classified] sessions to get the full story,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told HuffPost last week about McCain’s stance on Haspel. 
 
 McCain remains at his home in Arizona, where he is battling brain cancer. 
 
 Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who also sits on the intelligence committee, lamented that McCain’s colleagues felt his absence. 
 
 “It’s one thing to vote [when] John McCain is in Sedona, it’s another thing to look him in the eye and tell him you’re not going to vote with him,” King, who plans to vote against Haspel, told The Boston Globe. “There’s no one in the Senate who has even remotely the credibility he does on an issue of this kind.” 
 
 Warner, who will be up for re-election in 2020, had faced particular pressure from liberal activist groups in recent days to oppose Haspel’s nomination. Indivisible, a progressive group working to resist Trump’s agenda, held demonstrations in Virginia and also urged its members to call the senator’s office to urge him to come out against Haspel.
– Gina Haspel won the endorsement of the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday, with the panel voting 10-5 to advance her nomination as CIA director to the full Senate. Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency and the second person to lead the agency after being undercover her entire career, was a controversial pick by President Trump thanks to her role in the CIA's controversial post-9/11 "enhanced" interrogation program, per ABC News. But at least five Democrats in the Senate have said they will back her, "all but assuring" she'll be confirmed, per the Wall Street Journal. Republican Senate leaders want to hold the vote this week, but it could get pushed to next week.