One day after resigning from his position as the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center director, Joe Kent sat for an interview with conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson. Speaking out for the first time after stepping down from his role, Kent raised serious questions about the Iran war.
During the two-hour long interview, Kent spoke about the war, intelligence concerns and internal disagreements within the administration. He mentioned how several key officials were blocked from sharing their views with President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the conflict.
Joe Kent on why we actually went to war with Iran. pic.twitter.com/ghoSEW6fLy
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 19, 2026
“In the lead up to this last iteration, good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” he mentioned. “They had that discussion, you know, behind closed doors, and there wasn’t a chance for any dissenting voices to come,” Kent added.
According to a CNN report, a senior Trump administration official corroborated Kent’s comments. It was revealed that the White House evidently sidelined Kent from participating in the president’s intelligence briefings.
Further during the interview, Kent pushed back against claims that Iran was planning a sudden and major attack on the United States. He confirmed that there was no intelligence suggesting anything similar to the 9/11 disaster or Pearl Harbor attack.
“There was no intelligence that said, hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, they’re going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They’re going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence,” Kent said.
Kent then proceeded to make a controversial claim about Iran’s leadership. He said that former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the airstrikes last month, had actually been slowing down Iran’s nuclear ambitions rather than speeding them up.
“I’m no fan of the former supreme leader, you know, Ali Khamenei; however, he was moderating their nuclear program. He was preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Kent shared. “If you take him out, if you kill him aggressively, people are going to rally around that regime.”
When asked directly by Carlson if Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, Kent gave a clear answer, “No, they weren’t.” He clarified that while Iran was continuing its nuclear program, the country was not at the point of making a weapon.
Proceeding with the interview, Kent made revelations about how Israel had a strong influence on U.S. decisions in the region. He pointed to comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who believed Iran to be a threat, because Israel was planning to attack and Iran would have hit back.
Joe Kent tells Tucker Carlson that President Trump’s administration misled the world about Iran being an imminent threat.
Kent says the real imminent threat came from Israel, which he claims was planning to strike Iran first, putting U.S. soldiers in harm’s way.
He says this… pic.twitter.com/iAGXU3ADD4
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) March 18, 2026
Kent disagreed with Rubio’s view and said Iran was unlikely to attack unless provoked. “So, the imminent threat that the secretary of state is describing is not from Iran. It’s from Israel?” Carlson asked, to which Kent responded, “Exactly.”
Following such serious claims, Carlson eventually asked Kent about his motivation to speak up immediately after his resignation. To this, Kent noted, “It became really clear to me, you know, over the weekend, this past weekend, that our message just wasn’t getting through,”
“I know what happens if I stay, and I go along with this, I’m going to be, you know, knee deep in it, trying to just chip away and make a difference,” Kent said. He stated that’s when he realized that it was time for him to resign and speak out through interviews.
“But my ability to have, you know, my voice heard, to present data that runs contrary to the trajectory and the agenda that the administration’s on, that’s going to be squashed before it even really reaches the White House,” Kent concluded.
But despite his criticism and difference in opinion, Kent said his personal relationship with Trump remains respectful. He revealed that he spoke with the president before leaving and described the conversation as calm and understanding.
“I spoke with him before I departed the administration. It went great. I mean, not the best conversation ever. You know, I told him why I was leaving. He heard me out,” Kent ended.
