{"id":354144,"date":"2026-03-19T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T10:18:07","slug":"joe-kent-and-tucker-carlson-add-new-dimension-to-trumps-attempts-to-justify-iran-war-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354144\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Kent and Tucker Carlson add new dimension to Trump\u2019s attempts to justify Iran war \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday afternoon, US president Donald Trump<\/a> made the short flight to Dover Airbase for the solemn transfer of the six service members killed in the Middle East during a refuelling mission. <\/p>\n

The ceremony was not broadcast, at the request of the families, but the sombre photographs \u2013 heavy coats and heavy mood against a slate sky \u2013 carried a stark power. <\/p>\n

By the time Trump returned to Washington, it had been revealed that Joe Kent, the administration\u2019s director of the US national counterterrorism centre until his abrupt resignation<\/a> on Tuesday, was about to give an interview on The Tucker Carlson<\/a> Show. As if explaining the Iran<\/a> war was not sufficiently muddled for the Trump administration, the Kent dimension was now spilling into the Maga-verse.<\/p>\n

Although nominally a Trump ally, Carlson has been relentless in his scepticism of the United States involvement. He was keen to hear Kent elaborate on his views that Israel<\/a>, and Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a>, had either coaxed or forced the administration into joining the aerial barrage that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has triggered energy price rises and mass chaos \u2013 and the deaths of thousands of innocents \u2013 across the Gulf. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, they weren\u2019t three weeks ago when this started, and they weren\u2019t in June either,\u201d Kent told Carlson when asked about an imminent threat from Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians have had a religious ruling, a fatwa, against developing a nuclear weapon since 2004. That\u2019s available in the public sphere, but then also we had no intelligence to indicate that fatwa was being disobeyed or was on the cusp of being lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the interview, Carlson played the clip of secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> explaining the rationale for the attack, or war, in the days after its start by claiming Trump \u201cmade the very wise decision \u2013 we knew there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio\u2019s attempts since then to qualify or contextualise those remarks have not really helped, not least because he has a reputation for concise, blunt and accurate phrasing. The belief the United States was dragged into this military action by Israel has been a source of intense irritation to senior White House staff. <\/p>\n

Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war, has been offering vehement explanations in his daily Pentagon briefings but his bombast has hindered rather than helped the administration: Hegseth using the phrase \u201cexquisite intelligence\u201d is not a happy coupling.<\/p>\n

Hours before Kent\u2019s appearance, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was put through a squirming inquisition by Georgia senator Jon Ossoff during an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Her answers did little to inspire the confidence of sceptics.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Adams, director of defense Intelligence Agency, and US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testify during a Senate Committee on Intelligence in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Oliver Contreras\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Responding to Kent\u2019s resignation letter, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Tuesday that the administration\u2019s own counter-intelligence head was simply airing \u201cthe same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over\u201d, reiterating that president Trump had \u201cstrong and compelling evidence that Iran was about to attack the United States first\u201d and saying he would never take such a grave decision \u201cin a vacuum\u201d.<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s long question-and-answer session in the company of Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin on Tuesday, he repeated the claim that the US and the world was on the verge of a catastrophic series of attacks.<\/p>\n

But Kent\u2019s crisis of conscience has not helped the White House in its continuing effort to sell the necessity of the war to the public against the backdrop of escalating fuel prices, with oil at $110 a barrel, the prospect of Iran falling further into the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the potential for a land mission involving US troops and persistent scepticism from usually loyal voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Kent is a guy that is highly revered \u2013 11 combat tours, valour and courage and dedication to country beyond question,\u201d Steve Bannon, the Maga podcast host and former Trump adviser said on his show.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from a guy like Joe Kent, to me, you are going to have to investigate this. There should be an immediate investigation of what he is talking about. I\u2019ve had many questions about the 12-day war and about this whole imminent threat. And as I\u2019ve also said: now you are in it, we\u2019ve got to win this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megyn Kelly, the former cable anchor who describes herself as Maga-adjacent, has also been critical of the Iran attacks while Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>, the former congresswoman now estranged from and disillusioned with Trump\u2019s version of Maga ideology, has anointed Kent \u201can American hero\u201d.<\/p>\n

Several commentators, including New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg, have offered a more nuanced view of Kent, who has a recorded history of offering conspiracy theories on everything from January 6th to Anthony Fauci.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trauma of war breeds extremism,\u201d Goldberg wrote on Wednesday. \u201cKent himself is a prime example. A former Green Beret, he told me in 2022 that he was propelled into politics by the 2019 death of his wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologic technician who was killed by an Isis suicide bomber in Syria. <\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, he blamed what he called the \u2018administrative state\u2019 for her loss, arguing that unelected bureaucrats had foiled Trump\u2019s attempts to pull troops out of Syria. Now, he\u2019s come to direct that rage toward the Jewish state, describing himself in his resignation letter as a \u2018Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has declared, several times, that victory over Iran has been achieved, and that he will end the mission when he feels the time is right. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wednesday night fell in Washington with confirmation that Israeli intelligence had killed, or \u201celiminated\u201d, another leading figure in the Iranian regime. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Israel\u2019s relentless policy of assassination in Iran could backfireOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Right now, Trump still has strong support among the Republican<\/a> base for involving the US in the attack, according to recent polling. The White House frustration at what they see as the blind refusal of the liberal media and Democratic opponents to ever give the Trump administration credit for anything has turned molten since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n

Now, Kent\u2019s decision to speak up and jump from relative obscurity to the heart of a national debate adds another dimension to the conversation.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Washington Democratic senator Patty Murray warned the chamber about her deep alarm at the Republicans appointment of Kent, whom she described as \u201ca conspiracy theorist who espouses white supremacist views, and is patently unqualified for this important role in just about every way imaginable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all the evidence we could ever need \u2013 in the public record, right now \u2013 that he is not going to do the right thing,\u201d she said then.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have no reason to believe he will do this important, high-stakes work in a serious, impartial manner \u2013 let alone a competent one. I am here to urge all of my colleagues to join me in doing exactly what people back in Washington state have done each time they were asked to trust Joe Kent: vote no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Republican colleagues may now wish they\u2019d listened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday afternoon, US president Donald Trump made the short flight to Dover Airbase for the solemn transfer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10748,14843,969,42,11829,3410,150432,20878,43,26574,16621,120987,40,38,41,39,14395,115],"class_list":["post-354144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-democratic-party","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-republican-party","tag-steve-bannon","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tucker-carlson","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}