Takeaways from former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent’s extensive interview

By Samantha Waldenberg, CNN

(CNN) — Former US National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent sat Wednesday for an extensive interview with former Fox News host and right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, his first public comments since he resigned from his post, citing concerns about the war with Iran.

The interview lasted more than one hour and 40 minutes and covered a wide range of topics, including the ongoing war, but also the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the government’s files on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

Here are the takeaways:

A warning that key decision makers couldn’t express opinions to Trump ahead of war

Kent told Carlson there was limited access to President Donald Trump in the lead up to the war in Iran, saying in part that a “good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion” to the president.

“In the lead up to this last iteration, good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent said, noting that there was “robust debate” preceding US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year.

By contrast, the intelligence community’s ability to offer a “sanity check” when briefing the president “was largely stifled in this second iteration,” Kent said.

“They had that discussion, you know, behind closed doors, and there wasn’t a chance for any dissenting voices to come,” he said later on in the podcast.

A senior Trump administration official told CNN on Tuesday that the White House previously sidelined Kent from participating in the president’s intelligence briefings, including those related to Iran.

‘No intelligence’ Iran was going to launch a ‘sneak attack,’ Kent says

Just one day after resigning from his role, Kent also told Carlson there was “no intelligence” that Iran was going to launch a “big sneak attack” akin to the September 11, 2001, attacks or Pearl Harbor.

“There was no intelligence that said, hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, they’re going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They’re going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence,” Kent said.

Trump and the the White House have repeatedly cited an imminent threat posed by Iran as an impetus for launching strikes against the country.

Kent further argued that the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who died last month in joint US and Israeli strikes, had been moderating the country’s nuclear program.

“I’m no fan of the former supreme leader, you know, Ali Khamenei, however, he was moderating their nuclear program. He was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon,” he said, warning, “If you take him out, if you kill him aggressively, people are going to rally around that regime.”

Asked by Carlson if Iran was on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon, Kent replied,“No, they weren’t,” before adding that Iran’s strategy was “to not completely abandon the nuclear program.”

Repeated claims that Israel drew US into Iran war

Kent also said he felt that Israel had pulled the US into the conflict and was broadly influencing American policy in the Middle East.

He pointed to comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who argued earlier this month that Iran was an imminent threat because the US believed Israel was about to attack and Iran would hit back. He cast Rubio’s thinking as flawed, because, he said, there was no reason to believe Iran was going to attack without being provoked.

“So, the imminent threat that the secretary of state is describing is not from Iran. It’s from Israel,” Carlson asked.

“Exactly,” Kent responded. “And I think this speaks to the broader issue: who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East.”

Kent, who has faced criticism in the past for associations with far-right figures, including White nationalists and a Nazi sympathizer, focused extensively on Israel in his resignation letter, with some Republicans accusing him of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“Isolationists and anti-Semites have no place in either party, and certainly do not deserve places of trust in our government,” former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on social media, condemning what he described as “the virulent anti-Semitism” of Kent’s resignation letter.

Why he spoke out

Kent said that his motivation for speaking out this week specifically was because he felt that his voice and his comments were being “squashed” before they reached the White House.

“It became really clear to me, you know, over the weekend, this past weekend, that our message just wasn’t getting through,” Kent said.

“I know what happens if I stay, if I if I stay, and I go along with this, I’m going to be, you know, knee deep in it, trying to just chip away and make a difference. But my ability to have, you know, my voice heard, to present data that runs contrary to the trajectory and the agenda that the administration’s on, that’s going to be squashed before it even really reaches the White House,” he added.

Details of his resignation conversation with Trump

Kent said Wednesday that he spoke directly with Trump prior to his departure from the administration, calling the president “very respectful” and “very kind” in their conversation.

“I spoke with him before I departed the administration,” Kent told Carlson, adding, “It went great. I mean, not the best conversation ever. You know, I told him why I was leaving. He heard me out.”

Kent welcomed the prospect of speaking with Trump again, noting that he believes he and the president “departed personally on good terms.”

CNN previously reported that Kent met with Vice President JD Vance on Monday, laying out why he intended to step down over concerns and presenting his resignation letter.

Kent also addressed a range of other causes of high interest within the MAGA movement, including the assassination of Kirk, saying in part that the Justice Department and FBI would not allow him to investigate possible foreign ties to the political activist’s killing. CNN previously reported that Kent drew a rebuke last year from FBI Director Kash Patel and other Justice Department officials after he sought to access FBI systems to investigate Kirk’s death, according to people briefed on the matter.

Pressed by Carlson on whether files related to the 1963 assassination of Kennedy are being withheld from the public, Kent said he didn’t think there is anything “earth-shattering” in any of the records, but added, “The system doesn’t want to get us used to things being rapidly declassified.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Aleena Fayaz and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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