Joe Kent, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who was President Trump’s principal counterterrorism advisor, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show to explain his side of the story after stepping down from the administration.
Kent announced his resignation Tuesday, citing his opposition to the ongoing U.S. war with Iran, and his belief that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to America – while asserting in his resignation letter that his wife died in “a war manufactured by Israel” in a 2019 suicide bombing in Manjbi, Syria.
In this first public interview since resigning, Kent elaborated on his reasons amid reports emerging Wednesday that the FBI is investigating him for allegedly leaking or improperly sharing classified information (a probe that sources say predates his resignation and is being handled by the FBI’s Criminal Division, per several outlets).
Early on in the interview, Carlson referenced Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s justification for the strikes – that Iran posed an imminent threat because Israel was preparing to attack Iranian targets, likely prompting Iranian retaliation against U.S. forces. Carlson reframed it bluntly:
Carlson: “So, the imminent threat that the secretary of state is describing is not from Iran. It’s from Israel.”
Kent: “Exactly. And I think this speaks to the broader issue: who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East?”
Kent elaborated that Israel was preparing to strike, which would trigger retaliation endangering U.S. personnel – creating the cited “imminent” risk. He stated:
Kent: “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action, which we knew would set off a series of events because the Iranians would retaliate.”
Kent insisted there was zero U.S. intelligence of Iran planning a direct attack, nearing a nuclear weapon, or posing an immediate homeland threat. He cited Iran’s religious fatwa against nuclear weapons (since 2004) and said the assassinated Supreme Leader Khamenei had moderated the program:
Kent: “There was no intelligence that said, hey… the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack… There was none of that intelligence.” On nukes: “No, they weren’t [on the verge of a bomb]. They weren’t in June either. The Iranians have had a fatwa – a religious ruling – against the development of a nuclear weapon since 2004… We had no intelligence that it was being disobeyed.”
JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇮🇷 Former US Counterterrorism Chief Joe Kent tells Tucker Carlson the “imminent threat” was not from Iran, it was from Israel. pic.twitter.com/UwkNe3ZQFl
— Remarks (@remarks) March 18, 2026
Internal Dissent Suppressed
Kent described how dissenting views were sidelined in the lead-up to strikes. Key officials, including himself, were reportedly barred from direct briefings with Trump. He said he spoke personally with the president before resigning – a conversation he described as “very respectful” – but felt staying would mean silencing his warnings.
“A good deal of key decision-makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent said, adding “There wasn’t a robust debate.“
Joe Kent says Operation Midnight Hammer allowed Key-decision makers to have robust debate about the mission, but when it came to this new war, no debate was allowed, and President Trump was basically kept in an Information Silo with Israeli-fed Intelligence
He reiterates what… https://t.co/FegSMJGajB pic.twitter.com/6udeyrh1WH
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) March 19, 2026
The Charlie Kirk Assassination and Blocked Investigation
In an emotionally charged segment, Kent discussed the September 2025 assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, whom he knew personally. Kent recounted Kirk’s last words to him in the West Wing in June:
Kent (recalling Kirk): “Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.”
Kent said Kirk had opposed escalation and faced pressure from pro-Israel donors. He revealed the NCTC had leads on potential foreign involvement but was ordered to halt:
Kent: “The investigation that the National Counterterrorism Center was a part of, we were stopped from continuing to investigate… There was still a lot for us to look into… there were still linkages for us to investigate that we needed to run down.”
Tucker Carlson gets visibly upset as Joe Kent explains to him that the Counterterrorism Center had more leads to investigate foreign ties to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, but were shut down from pursuing them. pic.twitter.com/0IU0jEC2cY
— Zach Costello (@ZachCostello_) March 19, 2026
The official narrative focused on lone gunman Ryan Robinson, but Kent insisted unresolved questions remained.
Other Notable Revelations
Kent spent significant time discussing his own warnings from a January 2024 appearance on Carlson’s show, where he had predicted a U.S. war with Iran would become “very bloody very quickly,” rally the Iranian people around the regime, activate deadly proxy networks across the region (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis), overstretch American military and economic resources amid other global commitments, and ultimately hand strategic victories to China. He stated that those predictions had proven prescient, as Tehran’s proxies were already conducting attacks and that the conflict was draining U.S. attention and treasure at precisely the wrong moment.
A major theme was the strategic windfall for China. Kent warned that deep U.S. entanglement in Iran would play directly into Beijing’s hands:
Kent: “If we get deeply involved and deeply entangled with Iran, we are playing right into China’s hands, because China would like nothing more than for us to be committing our military industrial base to a war in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, and then to be committing our conventional military power, our blood, and our treasure back in the Middle East. That will make the Pacific, our actual border, extremely vulnerable to Chinese aggression, or China will simply just watch us bleed out economically as we bleed out on the battlefield on these couple different theaters.”
He described China as “sitting on the sidelines… silently nodding along with a slowly spreading grin,” benefiting from America’s distraction and resource depletion without firing a shot.
Kent also offered a detailed explanation of Iran’s nuclear calculus, describing Tehran’s strategy as “actually pretty pragmatic.” He pointed to the cautionary tale of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi:
Kent: “The Iranian strategy, it’s actually pretty pragmatic … because they saw what happened to Gaddafi in Libya when he said ‘I’ll give up my nukes.’”
Kent argued that the regime views nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against regime change, and that the current war – rather than deterring them – would likely empower hardliners in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while rallying the broader Iranian population behind the government. He noted that the assassinated Supreme Leader Khamenei had been a moderating influence and that his successor could prove far more radical.
“The Iranian strategy, it’s actually pretty pragmatic … because they saw what happened to Gaddafi in Libya when he said ‘I’ll give up my nukes.’”
Joe Kent said during an interview with Tucker Carlson following his resignation as director of the National Counterterrorism… pic.twitter.com/Rt0X3BwPiE
— TRT World (@trtworld) March 19, 2026
On the declassification of sensitive historical files, Kent addressed Trump’s orders to release documents related to the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations (as well as Epstein files). He said no “earth-shattering” revelations were expected, but that the bureaucracy was deliberately slow-walking the process:
Joe Kent (on the files): “The same government that told us a magic bullet killed JFK… bureaucracy slows declassification deliberately.”
Kent suggested that full transparency would never occur without sustained pressure from the top.
Full interview here:
Joe Kent on why we actually went to war with Iran. pic.twitter.com/ghoSEW6fLy
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 19, 2026
