Joe Kent, who made headlines by resigning from the Trump administration this week, saw the 2O21 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as a left wing, F.B.I-fueled uprising. Such views helped to qualify him for a top counterterrorism posting in the topsy turbulent territory of Trumpland. But this week he walked away, reasoning that we are buying oil from people we are bombing.
A “ghost fleet” of tankers has been peddling Iranian and Russian oil on the world market, keeping the economies of both countries afloat. Trump is now tapping this reservoir of 50 or so tankers to hold down oil prices. And these are the President’s recent’s recent words spoken of his predecessor Joe Biden: “I always thought he was weak on security. It’s a good thing he’s out because he said Iran was not a threat.”
The MAGA movement is showing signs of implosion. A faction led by Tucker Carlson, who served up softball questions for Vladimir Putin to swat away, opposes air strikes on Persian Gulf officials and refineries. Trump bombs away, possibly spurred on by bone spurs. Now, however, Kent says he cannot “in good conscience “support the bombing raids” while Trump says it is “a good thing Kent is out. Why? Because Kent was “very weak on security.”
Kent was, of course, the guy who let a Republican-leaning Third Congressional District slip into the hands of “blue dog” Democrat U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, hitherto co-owner (with her husband) of a Portland auto repair shop. MGP is now seeking her third term in the Peoples’ House and reconnecting her party with its working class roots.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a tenacious Trump toady, reacted to Kent’s departure: “I got all the briefings. We all understood clearly there was an imminent threat that Iran was very close in the enrichment of nuclear materials.” Kent, Speaker Johnson said, “wasn’t in those briefings, clearly.”
Trump made a “a very difficult decision,” Johnson added, to bomb the hell out of Iran and assassinate its leaders. Johnson said he was speaking from the “Gang of Eight,” congressional leaders of both parties who were briefed on Iran plans.
Kent, a former Green Beret, has been in cahoots with the Proud Boys and other Christian nationalist groups. Democrats in Congress raised this association and were unanimous in opposing his Senate confirmation as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
During the confirmation battle, Trump termed Kent “a nice guy” even though Kent intimated that FBI agents were instigators of the insurrection, two weeks before Biden was inaugurated. Tucker Carlson dubbed Kent “the bravest man I know.” Ex-Rep. Margarie Taylor Greene dubbed Kent “an American hero.”
Kent made clear, in his resignation letter, that he’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. He spoke of a “misinformation campaign” at his confirmation. He depicted Trump as the tool of “high ranking Israeli officials,” giving cover to antisemitism. He also demonized “influentional members of the American media.”
The Trump Administration has been perching roost for a bevy of folk once dubbed as “wacko birds” by Sen. John McCain. Trump, never one to confess an error, said of Joe Kent, “I didn’t know him well.”
This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
Discover more from Post Alley
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
