Joe Kent and the Company He Keeps

Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.

Joe Kent has been in the news, for this former soldier who was the Director of the National Terrorism Center suddenly resigned from his office on March 17, saying on Tuesday Iran posed no imminent threat to the US, a view experts say contradicts longstanding security warnings.

More on his attention-seeking letter of resignation can be found here.

The US counterterrorism chief’s resignation over the Iran war made waves in Washington, but his assertion that Tehran posed no imminent threat was swiftly challenged by officials and analysts.

In his resignation letter to President Trump Joe Kent wrote that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” and accused the White House of going to war on behalf of Israel.

US officials pushed back quickly, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Trump had evidence to support his decision to strike and House Speaker Mike Johnson questioning Kent’s information.

“I don’t know where Joe Kent is getting this information, but he wasn’t in those briefings,” Johnson said. “Had the president waited, we would have had mass casualties. That proposition at the end is clearly wrong.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also pushed back publicly, saying that the administration rejects the view that Iran posed no threat.

Kent resigned on Tuesday, saying he “cannot in good conscience” support the Trump administration’s war in Iran, and arguing the conflict had been driven by pressure from Israel and its supporters in the United States rather than an immediate security necessity.

President Trump dismissed him shortly afterward, calling it a “good thing” he stepped down and describing him as “very weak on security.”

Here’s what we know about Joe Kent. He served 11 tours of duty, some of them as a Green Beret. His wife Shannon, a cryptologist, was killed by an Islamic State (ISIS) bomb that exploded in Syria. He came away from her death convinced that any war in the Middle East was simply not worth the loss of American life. He lost the faculty — assuming he every possessed it — of rationally weighing the threat that Iran posed not just to the United States and Israel, but to the entire Middle East and beyond.

Kent was known for tolerating, and even sharing, the views of antisemites and anti-black racists. He just barely received Senate approval, so disturbed were some senators about some of his reported remarks expressing these views. In office, he acquired a reputation as a “leaker” of state secrets, and so in recent months he was cut out of meetings where the most sensitive security matters concerning Iran were discussed; he was not privy, for example, to the latest intelligence information about Iran’s success in resurrecting its nuclear program after the Twelve-Day War, including the newest enrichment site at Isfahan, and so was in no position to judge whether the Iranian threat was “imminent” enough to warrant the unleashing of Operation Epic Fury.

After Kent’s resignation letter blaming Israel for supposedly pushing America into a war was made public, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who until 2025 was Senate Majority Leader and an ex officio member of the on the Senate Intelligence Committee, let loose with both barrels. He said here that “the virulent antisemitism of his [Kent’s]resignation letter makes it clear that Mr. Kent is incapable of upholding these pledges, and those who mistake its baseless and incendiary conspiracies for brave truth-telling are only fooling themselves,” McConnell wrote on social platform X.

“Isolationists and antisemites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government,” he added.

“The longtime Kentucky senator said just a year ago the former aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress that Iran and its terror proxies threatened U.S. service members in the Middle East.

“He said it would be an honor to return to the fight against terrorism, and he pledged to lead with integrity and accountability,” McConnell continued.

“However, Kent said in his letter Tuesday that the war on Iran was of “no benefit.”

“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” he wrote.

Comment: His wife was killed, Kent said, “in a war manufactured by Israel.” Ken’s wife Shannon was killed by a suicide bomber belonging to ISIS. How could anyone of sense hold Israel responsible for that killing carried out by the Islamist fanatics of ISIS?

“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now,” the intelligence official added.

Comment: Kent has championed Nick Fuentes, the pipsqueak antisemite who, at the age of 27, has become that. unappetizing thing, an “influencer,” and used his hate to attract a large and moronic following on the Internet. Kent has said Fuentes should not have his on-in rants curtailed. He also gave an interview to the neo-Nazi Grayson Arnold, who has a long record of anti-black and antisemitic statements, including this: “Hitler was a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand.” Kent saw nothing wrong, either then or now, with associating either with Fuentes or Arnold.

Now Joe Kent the leaker of state secrets, Joe Kent the racist, Joe Kent the antisemite, is out of office. How long will it take Al Jazeera, do you think, to offer him his own show?