Haspel sought to withdraw her nomination last week after some White House officials worried that the Senate would block her confirmation, according to The Washington Post. Trump, along with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short, have pressed Haspel to continue the process. Haspel was making the rounds on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of her hearing, trying to win over Democrats like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich.

Democrats are aware of Haspel’s popularity within the agency, according to one Democratic committee source, and the fact that the alternative could be a political appointee “like Tom Cotton.” (Several CIA veterans reacted with alarm last year when news broke that Trump was considering replacing Pompeo with Cotton.) The irony here is clear: Haspel, a career official and agency insider unlikely to appease Trump, is facing resistance from Democrats staunchly opposed to the president.

Still, the Democratic aide told me, “there is definitely a sense of, ‘if not Haspel, then who?’ It is unlikely we'll get someone better.” Indeed, Haspel will walk into her confirmation hearings with one trait that could win over skeptical Democrats: She is not a Trump loyalist. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, blocked a promotion for Haspel years ago over her role in the interrogation program and the destruction of the tapes. While she wants more information from the CIA about Haspel’s background, however, she “will likely be a ‘yes,’” one of the sources told me. (Feinstein’s press secretary, Ashley Schapitl, said that aide was “certainly not informed” on Feinstein’s thinking.) Manchin and Warner are “gettable,” too, this person said, noting that many of Warner’s constituents are agency employees who like Haspel.

Haspel oversaw a CIA black site in Thailand where two terrorism suspects were tortured, and her name was on the cable that ordered the videotapes of their interrogations to be destroyed in 2005. A memo written by the CIA’s acting director at the time, Mike Morell, was declassified by the agency last month in an attempt to clear Haspel of responsibility for destroying the evidence. But some key Senate Democrats say it isn’t enough, and have requested that all records detailing “any involvement” by Haspel “in the CIA’s Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation program” be declassified.

Haspel, a career intelligence officer who joined the agency in 1985, served as Pompeo’s deputy for just over a year before Pompeo was nominated by Trump to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. CIA insiders feared Pompeo was imposing his religion on the agency and that he was overly partisan at times. Haspel is an insider who has garnered support from anti-Trump intelligence veterans like former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, who believe she will serve as a check on the president. More than 50 former senior intelligence officials signed an open letter last month calling for Haspel to be confirmed.