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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
“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,” unquote. Those are the words of Joe Kent, who resigned Tuesday as the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. Kent is the highest-ranking Trump official to resign over the Iran war. His resignation exposes a growing rift within the MAGA movement over Trump’s foreign policy.
Kent served in the Army Special Forces and as a CIA paramilitary officer, twice ran for Congress and lost. As a candidate, Kent faced widespread scrutiny for his ties to the far right, including Nick Fuentes, who once said, “Hitler was awesome. Hitler was right,” unquote. Kent had acknowledged Fuentes took part in a call to help him broaden his campaign’s social media outreach. During his 2022 election bid for Congress, Kent hired a member of the far-right Proud Boys as a consultant. Kent has also accused the FBI of orchestrating the January 6th insurrection.
Last year, President Trump selected Kent to head the National Counterterrorism Center. The Senate confirmed him last July. The Southern Poverty Law Center had urged senators to reject Kent, citing what they called his “Associations with White Nationalists, Violent Groups, and Anti-Democracy actors,” unquote.
On Tuesday, President Trump was questioned about Joe Kent’s resignation.
REPORTER: Your director of national counterterrorism, Joe Kent, he just resigned today. He said he can’t support your conflict with Iran. What’s your reaction to that? And did you talk to him?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I read his statement. I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read his statement, I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about Joe Kent’s resignation from his position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, we’re joined by another former government official who resigned over another war, Josh Paul, former State Department official who worked on arms deals. He resigned in 2023 to protest the push to increase arms sales to Israel amidst its assault on Gaza. Now Josh Paul is director at A New Policy, the lobbying organization he co-founded with fellow resignee Tariq Habash to press for a change in U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel.
Josh, welcome back to Democracy Now! Talk about the significance of Joe Kent’s resignation, the highest Trump administration official to quit so far.
JOSH PAUL: Thank you, Amy. Good to join you.
So, I think it is a significant resignation in several ways. First of all, of course, on its face, you have here a very senior U.S. intelligence official who is resigning and saying, essentially, that the United States is at war, but we are not at war to support our own national interests; we are at war because we have been pushed to do so by a partner country, specifically by Israel. Of course, in saying that, he is not saying anything that Secretary Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, did not himself say just days into this conflict. The difference is that Kent — and here, perhaps, his background as a military operator on the ground in Special Forces for covert operations, you know, coming into the D.C. political scene, I think, you know, probably pretty strongly objects to, given his own experience, and, of course, the loss of his own wife in a terrorist attack in 2018.
The second important thing here is that Kent is, by my count, the 16th U.S. official in the last three years to resign over the U.S.-Israel relationship. That is a trend that now spans both the Biden and Trump administrations. Of course, Kent is the first to resign from the Trump administration and the most senior to resign from either administration.
I think a third important factor here is the insight this gives us into the debate that is happening within the MAGA movement when it comes to the U.S.-Israel relationship. We know that there is a very visible, very vocal debate happening in the Democratic Party on that topic. It is clear that there is also a very vocal debate happening within the right wing of American politics. It is just less visible. And that’s due to a number of factors, including, of course, President Trump’s management of the political party that is the Republican Party. But I think what we see here is this really coming to the fore, and perhaps a leading indicator of further breaks and shifts within the party on this issue to follow.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Joe Kent speaking in 2024 about U.S. policy towards Iran.
JOE KENT: We have to stop making ourselves easy targets in the region. … Our presence in the region actually makes us much, much more in an unsafe condition, and it gives Iran the ability to access us in a very, very easy way. Deprive Iran of targets. Deprive Iran of funding. Strengthen the Abraham Accords. Let Israel take care of their own business.
AMY GOODMAN: Your response, Josh Paul?
JOSH PAUL: So, Joe Kent certainly knows the threat that Iran posed to U.S. forces when they’re in the Middle East, having been awarded the Bronze Star several times, including for actions in Iraq. I think his point here is that this is, again, you know, whatever threat Iran may pose within the region, it is not a threat to the United States. And the reason that we are currently engaged in this is in great part because of our presence in the region that is there to protect Israel, in many cases from the consequences of its own actions. And we see that most vividly here. I think that it’s very clear that we would not be in this conflict if it were not for that presence, if it were not for that relationship. And I think at the end of the day, U.S. national security officials, intelligence officials are there to put America’s interests first.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting how the MAGA movement — the House speaker has just changed the rationale for attacking Iran, saying that this attack on Iran avoided a mass casualty event. And the question of whether this could provoke attacks on U.S. soil. It’s interesting that Kent — this is in Mother Jones magazine, “Trump’s Pick for Counterterrorism Called for Arresting BLM Leaders as Terrorists,” who they were focusing on, people like Kent. He said, “We need to treat antifa and BLM like terrorist organizations. We need to use the tools of the federal government, the FBI, the US Marshals — go after them like organized criminals and terrorists.” This is how he spoke when Trump was supporting him. And, of course, you have Tulsi Gabbard, who is head of national intelligence, and instead, she is spending her time looking at how Trump actually won the election, currying favor with Trump. And she was down in Georgia when they were taking something like 700 boxes from the Georgia election office.
JOSH PAUL: Yeah. And, I mean, let’s be clear: Joe Kent is very much within the core, sort of, of the MAGA movement, at the same time as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and, prior to that, as chief of staff for the director of national intelligence. He and the NCTC have provided core support to the FBI’s so-called 10/7, or post-October 7th task force, of course, engaged regularly in two-way intelligence sharing with Israel. And you heard his previous comments when it comes to, you know, advancing Israel’s interests in the region and enabling Israel, you know, to take that leadership on its own behalf, rather than the U.S. exercising that leadership for it at costs to our own equity. So, I think that there are a number of factors here.
At the end of the day, I think what’s clear is that Kent is someone who has — you know, I think was at the top of his career here, was only in the job for a year, I don’t think went into that job with an intention of leaving it, but, at the end of the day, saw the dreadful impact that we see now on the global economy, on the U.S. economy, on U.S. interests of this war that Prime Minister Netanyahu has dragged us into, and felt he had to stand up and speak.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re the former director at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the State Department, where you worked for 11 years. Josh Paul, as we wrap up, what do you think Congress can do at this point? There is a lot of criticism, of course, of congressmembers and senators, of what Trump is doing with Iran right now, dropping these bunker-buster bombs, for example, today. But what actually can they do?
JOSH PAUL: So, what they can do, of course, is much more than what they will do. What they can do is, of course, exercise their oversight. At some point in the coming weeks, there is going to be a very important vote when the administration comes forward with a funding request for the Iran war. If members of Congress mean what they say about not wanting to support this war and not believing we should be part of it, they should vote against that funding. So, I think there are a number of steps Congress can take.
There are also, I should note, emergency arms sales that the administration has put through in the last couple of weeks for Israel, some of which are coming out of U.S. stockpiles. Again, if members of Congress are serious about protecting U.S. military global leadership, then they should be voting against those sales that are coming out of critically needed U.S. stocks. So, there are a number of things Congress can do. I think the question remains to be seen of whether they will do those things.
AMY GOODMAN: Josh Paul, veteran State Department official, resigned in 2023 to protest the push to increase arms sales to Israel amidst its assault on Gaza, now director at A New Policy, a lobbying group he co-founded with a fellow resignee to press for a change in U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel.
Coming up, we look at the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on the press, as President Trump threatens to charge journalists, news outlets with treason. Treason is punishable by death. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “What Still Remains” by Sebastian Zawadzki.
