Joe Kent, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his position due to the “ongoing war in Iran.”

“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. 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 said.

“It has been an honor serving under @POTUS and @DNIGabbard and leading the professionals at NCTC. May God bless America,” he continued.

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” Kent wrote in a letter to President Trump.

“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. 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. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards,” he continued.

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Full letter below:

“It’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat,” Trump said.

“When somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat – we don’t want those people,” Trump added.

“They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people,” he said.

Watch below:

More from the Associated Press:

A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not immediately respond to questions about Kent’s resignation.

Democrats strongly opposed Kent’s confirmation, pointing to his past ties to far-right figures and conspiracy theories. But following his resignation, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Kent’s concerns about the war in Iran were justified.

“I strongly disagree with many of the positions he has espoused over the years, particularly those that risk politicizing our intelligence community,” Warner said. “But on this point, he is right: There was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”

Johnson, though, pushed back on Kent’s claims when asked about the resignation at a press conference on Tuesday.

“I got all the briefings. We all understood that there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability and they were building missiles at a pace no one in the region could keep up with,” Johnson said.

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Johnson said he is convinced that if Trump had waited “we would have mass casualties of Americans, service members and others, and our installation would have been dramatically damaged.”

“They were far outpacing our allies and friends and us in our defense capability because we had personnel installations, members of the armed services, and civilians in the region,” Johnson said.

“Iran was building up ballistic missiles at such a rapid pace and we knew that their plan was to fire them upon Americans. The Commander-in-Chief and his administration had a very difficult decision to make,” he continued.

“I don’t know where Joe Kent is getting this information, but he wasn’t in those briefings. Clearly. Because the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and everyone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kane, they had exquisite intelligence and we understood that this was a serious moment for us,” he added.

Footage below:

“There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.’ This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage. The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons,” she continued.

Full text below:

There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”

This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.

As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.

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This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.

Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.

Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage.

The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.

The President, through his top negotiators, gave the regime every single possible opportunity to abandon this unacceptable course by permanently giving up their nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, free nuclear fuel, and potential economic partnerships with our country.

But they would not say yes to peace because obtaining nuclear weapons was their fundamental goal.

President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.

All of this led to President Trump arriving at the determination that this military operation was necessary for U.S. national security, which is why he launched the massively successful Operation Epic Fury.

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The Commander-in-Chief determines what does and does not constitute a threat, because he is the one constitutionally empowered to do so – and because the American people went to the ballot box and entrusted him and him alone to make such final judgments.

And finally, the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable. President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon.

As someone who actually witnesses President Trump’s decision-making process on a daily basis, I can attest to the fact that he is always looking to do what’s in the best interest of the United States of America — period.

America First.

 

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