In a tweet on Tuesday morning, President Trump confirmed Rex Tillerson would no longer be Secretary of State. CIA Director Mike Pompeo will move into the Secretary of State role and his deputy director Gina Haspel will now run the organization.
Haspel will become, as Trump mentioned in his tweet, the first woman to run the CIA.
In February of last year, when Haspel was promoted to deputy director, the New York Times reported she "oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand" as a clandestine field agent in 2002.
Per the Washington Post, Haspel thanked Trump for the promotion: "After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said in a statement. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
Update, 3/13/18, 10:05 a.m.: Tillerson was reportedly unaware he was being fired until he saw the above tweet and is still unsure of the reason. A state department rep told the Wall Street Journal, “The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason," but that "he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted.”
Trump reportedly wanted to make sure the transition was complete ahead of talks with North Korea, which are supposedly happening in May.
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Tess Koman covers breaking (food) news, opinion pieces, and features on larger happenings in the food world. She oversees editorial content on Delish. Her work has appeared on Cosmopolitan.com, Elle.com, and Esquire.com.
