A senior US intelligence official appointed by President Donald Trump abruptly announced he is stepping down from his post on Tuesday, citing misgivings about the administration’s war with Iran.
“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Joe Kent wrote in a post on X.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent added in the resignation letter he attached to the post.
This guy just doesn’t want to be tossed under the bus. So whatever you do don’t show him any praise.
2000 - 2012 he was far right 2012-2019 he was registered as a Libertarian
2019- 2021 he was registered as a Democrat
2021- present he’s a Republican
This guy is a real pile of shit, and knows enough just to be an early rat to jump from the sinking ship.
[From wiki] Kent has been described as far-right.[a] He voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 before shifting his political beliefs towards libertarianism, supporting Ron Paul.[8] According to voting records, he was registered with the Libertarian Party in the 2012 presidential election until 2019, when he became a Democrat; Kent voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries in order to support Republicans in that year’s presidential election.[44] A spokesman for Kent described his political philosophy as “inclusive populism”, rejecting discrimination.[19]
Kent has adhered to false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.[45] A month following the January 6 Capitol attack, he stated Donald Trump had “no control” over the mob and attributed the severity of the attack to security planning.[12] Kent attended the Justice for J6 rally and compared the treatment of rioters to that of Iraqi citizens in the Iraq War.[46] He later called for releasing security footage of the attack,[47] and claimed the mob was brought to violence by provocateurs associated with the deep state.[48] After the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Kent told Steve Bannon on War Room the raid constituted “war”.[49] He called for defunding the Federal Bureau of Investigation in response.[50]
Kent led a rally against a false claim that the Washington State Board of Health was set to forcefully quarantine citizens who did not get the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2022.[51] In March, he appeared at an event organized by the Washington State Three Percenters, a far-right militia.[52] Kent once advocated for a federal ban on abortion, but later narrowed his position towards states’ rights.[48] By the following month, he had called for an investigation into Anthony Fauci over the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and for a complete shutdown in immigration to the United States.[44] In September, Kent stated Fauci should be charged with murder and described COVID-19 vaccines as “experimental gene therapy”;[50] he is unvaccinated against COVID-19.[3] At a rally with Matt Gaetz in September 2021, Kent advocated for school vouchers and per-child tax deductions for parents.[53] Kent opposed several proposals to replace the Interstate Bridge, including tolling and light rail, in his 2024 campaign.[54]
I mean… he doesn’t sound that bad.
Ok, that’s fine, but I am still going to praise him. This took courage to do.
Even if he’s wrong about other things, he did the right thing here. How are we ever going to incentivize people to do the right thing if they are going to get shit for it either way?
There’s a time and place to criticize him, but right now at this moment I’m more than happy to simply praise him.
He’s resigning because he looked around and realized the people in charge of stopping terrorism are 20 year olds and aging podcaster hopped up on testorone injections to the point they’re psychologically 20 again…
And we just pissed off Iran.
Attacks are coming, they’ve never been more likely.
And he doesn’t want to be anywhere near the bag when someone has to hold it.
Sounds like Putin’s plan is working as intended.
I’ve been saying for a while trump (or at least his domestic handlers) want a domestic terror attack because they expect it to be like 9/11 for lil Bush, but if it does happen it’ll get the opposite result.
Everyone will blame trump instead of bipartisan rallying around him.
It’s like watching a 4th grade pee wee football team try to run some crazy Bill Bellicheck trick play. Everyone can see the intent coming a mile away and know what they’re doing, which is the opposite of what you want for a trick play.
Trump has remove anyone in Washington D.C. with talent and replace them with someone with greed.
We need a war on greed.
If he’s quick enough, he can use that Reichstag fire to do a quick round of prosecution of his enemies while everyone is distracted and are yelling at each other. And once the prosecution starts, it’s easy to continue. All the other bricks of the authoritarian takeover are already basically in place.
The most dangerous man in my life is my president.
Okay I read until it started getting kooky, which is the election denial shit and defending Trump after the insurrection. I get it. He’s an insincere nutcase.
But I would like to say that there are a lot of people who counterintuitively supported both Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, and I think I can explain why. Both Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders clearly believe on a personal level that they are doing the right thing. It’s rare to see politicians who don’t give the impression of being slimebag liars.
Of course, their politics are completely incompatible with each other, but some people don’t care about that. They just want a politician that they can trust to do what they said they’re going to do.
But since he went on to support Trump, that reasoning all flies out the window. Maybe he was frequently dropped on his head as a child.
Both vehemently anti-war, and less than average support for Israel among congresscritters. Trump 2024, was over the top “finish the job” Israel sycophancy, and why he won (all of the election money) despite accusing everyone else of being a warmonger.
I assume it’s about drawing votes away from the Democrats. I’m surprised more people don’t think or talk openly about doing this (for either side).
I agree with you and would say the same thing to my Trump supporting colleagues about Bernie in particular, circa 2016:
“I get it you hate socialism, and Bernie is going to turn us into Venezuela or whatever, but do you really believe that is his intent? Or do you believe, as wrong as he may be, that he thinks he’s doing the right thing and trying to help people.”
Most would always agree, that although he is wrong and a communist fascist socialist dope, he is earnest.
But back to the paradoxical supporters of Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, I think the genuineness is a big draw, but the politics are not completely incompatible… they both agreed on one big thing in different ways… Ron Paul wanted to audit the Fed, Bernie wanted to tax billionaires. They both were going after the masters of the universe pockets.
I love how your instinct is to attack him “because he’s a Republican” rather than “because of what he’s said”. This is the worst of political discussion these days. “Oh - he’s a Democrat” and “He’s a Republican” are used as arguments to dismiss rather than discussing the merits (or lack of) an argument.
I’m not defending this guy. He may be a piece of shit (I don’t know). But your instinct is toxic.
They didn’t attack him because he is a republican. They even showed reasons to back up why he shouldn’t be given praise. So it seems like maybe your instincts are the issue here.
I would recommend spending some time comprehending what you read before responding.