A top intelligence official who quit his post in protest told right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson that Israel successfully pressured President Trump into launching the war against Iran.
Expanding on his explosive claims about Israel’s behind-the-scenes power, Joe Kent even claimed the Jewish state had more access to Trump than American intelligence officials, an edge he says helped convince the president to bomb Iran.
“Key (American) decision makers were not allowed to express their opinions. There wasn’t a robust debate,” Kent said.
Kent, a right-wing former Republican congressional candidate with ties to white nationalists, spoke out on Carlson’s popular podcast after stepping down from his post as head of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of Trump’s decision to start the war.
““The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent told Carlson. “This speaks to the broader issue: who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East?”
Kent pointed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments in the first days of the war that Israel cornered the U.S. into joining the war by warning Trump it would launch widespread attacks on Iran, whether the U.S. agreed or not. Rubio later sought to backtrack from the candid remarks.
Trump and his allies have dismissed Kent’s claims even as some MAGA allies who generally oppose military intervention overseas have rallied behind him.
Some Jewish leaders say Kent’s accusations about Israel’s influence amount to an anti-Semitic smear that Jews and Israel pull the strings behind major geopolitical events.
Trump himself confirmed Thursday that Israel and the U.S. have different approaches. He confirmed telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt attacks on energy infrastructure after Israel struck a sprawling Iranian gas field.
“I told him don’t do that,” Trump said.
Shredding two of President Trump’s rationales for launching a full-blown war, Kent said the U.S. had no evidence that Iran planned to launch any attack on American or allied targets.
“There was no intelligence that said … the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, (that) they’re going to attack one of our bases,” said Kent, a Trump appointee.
Asked by Carlson if Iran was trying to build a nuclear weapon, Kent said there was no evidence of such a program before either the launching of the war last month or the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites last year.
“No. They weren’t three weeks ago when this started, and they weren’t in June either,” Kent said.
The FBI has launched a probe into Kent for allegedly leaking classified intelligence information but it’s not clear if it is tied to the Iran war.
Trump defended his administration’s plans to ask Congress for an estimated $200 billion more for the Pentagon to bankroll the war.
Lawmakers say the request is likely to spark a bitter debate on the war, the reasons for launching it and Trump’s goals for declaring victory.
“It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top,” Trump said.
