A member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday decried a “double standard” for President Donald Trump’s choice to run the CIA.

Democrats at Gina Haspel’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday pounded her over her role in supervising waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” during the early days of the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.

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But Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) noted on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that those same Democrats mostly ignored the issue when John Brennan — who was Haspel’s supervisor — was up for the job in 2013.

“It is definitely, definitely a double standard,” he said. “Look, you know, I’m on the intel committee. We hear stuff every day that makes us sleep not very well at night.”

Risch said Haspel (pictured above), a career intelligence officer, is eminently qualified for the job.

“I know this woman,” he said. “I’ve worked with her for the 10 years I’ve been here and on the intelligence committee. I’ve been in the field with her. And she’s the best.”

Risch said Democrats would have praised Haspel for breaking the glass ceiling as the first female CIA director if she had been tapped during the previous administration.

“If Barack Obama [had] nominated her, they’d have all jumped up and reached for their stone-cutting tools so they could put a fifth head on Mount Rushmore,” he said.

But Haspel is President Donald Trump’s nominee. That is all anyone needs to know to understand the reaction, Risch said.

“These people hate Donald Trump so bad that no matter what he does, they’re not going to give him credit for it,” he said. “They’re looking for every way they possibly can to turn what he’s doing with the North Koreans badly.”

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On domestic policy, Risch told Ingraham that Republicans should not run from the tax cuts Congress passed last year and should reform America’s exploited asylum system.

Tax cuts, Risch said, are a winning issue and are making the economy stronger.

“We’re gonna test in this midterm election what we’ve always believed, and that is ‘It’s the economy, stupid.'”

“This is us. This is the core of our party,” he said. “This is what we believe in. Less government. Less taxes that you take out of the economy, used by risk-takers and entrepreneurs and market makers to give us the qualify of life we want.”

The improving economy should give Republicans a solid issue on which to run during this year’s midterm elections, Risch said.

Related: Trump Says Haspel Critics Reject Her as ‘Too Tough on Terror’

“We’re gonna test in this midterm election what we’ve always believed, and that is ‘It’s the economy, stupid,'” he said. “I don’t know if that works both ways. I know if the economy is bad, people are angry and they throw people out. But what if it’s good? And it is not good; it is great.”

On immigration, Risch said it is clear that America’s asylum laws are “awful,” allowing people to come to the United States to make bogus claims that immigration courts often do not resolve for years.

But Risch downplayed chances for reform mustering the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster.

“We’re gonna vote on it,” he said. “But I’m not very optimistic that we could pass” legislation.

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.