SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly asked Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent on Friday if President Donald Trump initiating a conflict with Iran put Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard “in a tough spot.”
Vance and Gabbard had both expressed opposition to war in the Middle East prior to joining the second Trump administration. Kent said on “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the two foreign-war skeptics were doing the best they could while confirming they were “in a tough spot.”
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“They’ve been put in a tough spot. And I know that I put them in a tough spot,” Kent said. “And again, that’s why I wanted to give them a heads up and just say, ‘Hey, I’m resigning. I do plan on making it public. I want to attempt to reach President Trump from the outside to let him know that he still has options and there is a pathway for him to get us off of this trajectory.’ And then also just to thank them for the opportunity to serve once again.”
“But yeah, they’re in a hard spot. I mean, they’re doing everything I think they can to serve our country and to put it on a good trajectory and to support the president of the United States,” he added. “I was just in a different role and I didn’t feel that I could do that any longer. So, I offered my resignation.”
Vance said on Wednesday that Kent’s resignation was a positive development.
“I like Joe Kent, you heard the president of the United States say yesterday that he likes Joe Kent too. But it’s one thing to have a disagreement of opinion … whatever your view is, when the president of the United States makes a decision, it’s your job to make that decision as effective and successful as possible,” Vance said. “And so the president said this yesterday, if you are on the team and you can’t help implement the decisions of his administration, he has the right to make those decisions, then it’s a good thing for you to resign and I think that’s exactly right.”
Moreover, the vice president on March 13 declined to say whether reports that he privately opposed the U.S.’ Iran operation were accurate. He told The Washington Post two days before the operation that he was a “skeptic of foreign military interventions” and preferred a “diplomatic option.”
Kent wrote in his Tuesday resignation letter that the U.S. was engaged in its conflict with Iran due to Israeli influence and there was no imminent threat posed by the Islamic republic.
Gabbard declined to say whether she agreed or disagreed with Kent’s letter during a Thursday House Intelligence Committee hearing.
“He said a lot of things in that letter,” she said. “Ultimately, we have provided the president with the intelligence assessments, and the president is elected by the American people and makes his own decisions based on the information that’s available to him.”
However, Gabbard said she was concerned Kent blamed Israel for the conflict in his letter. She specifically campaigned on opposing a U.S. war with Iran during her 2020 Democratic presidential run, according to MS NOW.
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