Neoconservative radio talker Mark Levin interviewed former U.S. counterterrorism chief Joe Kent on Monday, and the chin wag did not go well for the Israel-First chickenhawk.
Such was Kent’s takedown of the angry, aging bloviator that he had to cut to a commercial break to catch his breath.
Kent’s message: Iran was not an “imminent threat” to the United States as some, including Levin, have claimed. Rather, Israel threatened to bomb Iran, which pulled the United States into the campaign to protect its own imperial assets in the Middle East.
Kent’s Resignation
Kent resigned as national counterterrorism director on March 17, citing the Iran War as the reason.
“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,” Kent wrote.
That “echo chamber was used to deceive” Trump “into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.”
Levin quickly responded that the Justice Department should investigate Kent to determine whether he leaked classified information. For Kent was “the SOB who leaked my meeting last year with POTUS to Qatarlson [Tucker Carlson]? And Gabbard didn’t fire him?”
Levin pursued that when Kent appeared on his program, hoping, presumably, to get an admission, or trap Kent in a lie.
“Were you a leaker?” asked Levin.
“I never leaked any classified information,” Kent replied.
“Did you ever leak classified information?” Levin asked. “You said no. Did you ever leak confidential information?”
Kent: Nope
Levin: Never?
Kent: Never
Levin: You’re on the record.… That’s a good thing, Joe.
Time for A Break
But Levin, who called Kent a “supremacist” and “antisemite” — a charge repeated by Israel-First GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — ducked into the bushes when Kent told the truth about the war. Levin cut to a commercial break when Kent detailed how the war started.
Explaining that he was a “key part” of determining whether Iran was a threat, Kent told Levin that Trump received intelligence “to paint a picture that Iran was on the cusp of developing a nuclear weapon, which simply was not the truth.”
“As Secretary Rubio said, there was no imminent threat coming from Iran against the Americans,” Kent said.
Levin: … He corrected that.
Kent: There was an imminent threat coming from the Israelis, who were going to attack [Iran]….
Levin: Hold on, hold on. We’re going to do it honestly. One point at a time.
Kent: The Iranians had observed an escalation ladder. They hadn’t attacked us under President Trump.
Levin asked Kent to speak more slowly because he was having trouble hearing the former Green Beret.
Kent: Sure. When President Trump came into office, the Iranians knew that President Trump wanted to get a deal. They observed the escalatory ladder very carefully. They stopped having … proxies attack us like they were attacking us under the Biden administration. And they got to the negotiating table with us about the nuclear agenda. When the 12 Day War kicked off, and the Israelis started that, the Iranians still didn’t attack us.
Levin: … We have to take a break.
Rubio “corrected himself,” by the way, only after President Trump corrected him after the secretary said Israel pulled the United States into the war by saying an attack would proceed, U.S. objections regardless.
Rubio had said the United States had no choice but to attack to protect U.S. regional assets.
“You Got a Real Hate On”
As is his custom, Levin accused Kent of being a hater when he said didn’t want the United States to fight another war in the Middle East on behalf of Israel.
Levin asked why Kent didn’t resign when the war started. Kent replied he hoped the war would de-escalate, and when it didn’t, he had to quit his post.
“Once I realized that that was not going to happen and we were spiraling deeper into this, and we were starting to lose brave men and women in yet another Middle Eastern war driven by the Israeli agenda, that’s what led me to resign.”
“Well, man, you got a real hate on,” Levin replied:
You got a real hate on, brother.
Levin accused Kent of reversing his position on Iran 180 degrees, which Kent denied.
“I have not done a 180,” Kent replied:
I have no problem with us working with Israel. I have a problem with Israel driving our foreign policy in the Middle East as they have done to get us into this war.
Levin asked why Kent couldn’t believe that Trump decided to attack Iran on his own, guided by his advisors and available intelligence, and accused him of peddling a “conspiratorial notion” that Israel “dragged powerful Donald Trump and the United States into war.”
Speaking to podcaster Bill O’Reilly last week, Graham said much the same thing as Levin.
“The head of counterterrorism says [a threat from Iran] wasn’t imminent,” O’Reilly said of Kent. “And he’s got the same info you have.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Graham replied. “He’s lying.”
Graham claimed that Kent’s resignation letter said “the Jews [dragged] us into” war with Iran, that “if the Jews weren’t around, we’d all be safe,” and that the letter “was full of misinformation and antisemitism.”
Kent is a former Army Ranger and Green Beret who deployed to combat 11 times. Levin is a longtime commentator who, while urging the United States into wars from behind a microphone, has never worn the uniform of his country.
Graham was an Air Force lawyer. “Lady G,” as he is known among homosexuals in the nation’s capital, thinks the president should order U.S. Marines to attack Kharg Island, the site of Iran’s main oil production, because the Marines defeated the Japanese on Iwo Jima in 1945.
