WATCH: Fox News' Shep Smith gets tough on CIA nominee Gina Haspel for dodging torture questions
Fox News' Shep Smith slammed Donald Trump's CIA director nominee Gina Haspel during his Wednesday show for dodging questions about records related the brutal interrogation techniques employed in her tenure as a ranking CIA official during the second Bush administration.
"Haspel said the recordings showed the faces of undercover spies and that put their lives at risk," the host noted. "A lot of details about the CIA's now-outlawed interrogation program remain classified."
"Waterboarding is torture and is not permitted under Army guidelines," Smith continued. "Torture is illegal under international law. The Supreme Court noted in 2004 that the United States has a historical record of regarding waterboarding as a war crime and has prosecuted individuals for such practice in the past."
Haspel said she would not restart the CIA's controversial interrogation program and that she no longer believes torture works in extracting information from terrorism suspects. But during her Wednesday hearing, she continued to defend the department destroying interrogation tapes and other records.
As Fox's Capitol Hill correspondent Catherine Herridge noted, an independent senator on the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled the nominee on those documents being destroyed and the classified remnants continuing to be shielded from the public — but didn't get a satisfactory answer.
"We are following the existing guidelines," Haspel began in the clip from the hearing earlier in the day before Sen. Angus King (I-ME) cut her off.
"Who is we?" the Maine senator asked the nominee, who stuttered as she clarified that she has, as an individual, "chosen to follow" department guidelines on the release of classified material.
"So you are making the classification decisions about what material should be released to this committee?" King asked Haspel.
"I am electing not to make an exception for myself," she responded.
Watch below, via Fox News: