Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is the latest Trump administration staffer to get the ax. The president plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018
This administration feels a lot like a cycle of "America's Next Top Model" or Trump's own "Celebrity Apprentice" because it was only a few weeks ago that we were making a list and checking it twice for the total firings since Trump took office.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”
He continued with, “Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo, and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year and have developed a great mutual respect.”
Trump's choice for the first female director of the CIA is a previous spy who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques. According to The Associated Press, she ran the secret CIA prison where accused terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002.
Things are going to get a bit darker and twisted before they get better. How long do you think it'll be before the next dismissal comes from the White House?
