Former Georgia Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor-Green, who has turned out to be a fierce critic of Trump’s response to the Jeffrey Epstein case and his decisions to launch military operations against Venezuela and Iran, urged Gabbard and Vance.
“People are paying attention, paying very close attention. Silence won’t cut it,” Green posted on social media. “You both have a record of repeatedly, publicly and loudly opposing going to war with Iran.”
The White House rejected Kent’s remarks in his resignation letter, in which he said Israeli officials and members of the US news media misled Trump into thinking the US needed to launch a war against Iran.
“As President Trump has clearly and unequivocally stated, there is strong and compelling evidence that Iran will attack the United States first,” White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said on social media.
Leavitt wrote that the decision took into account that Iran sponsors terrorism, that it has killed Americans, that it has a ballistic missile program that serves as a shield for its nuclear program, and that it has failed to take advantage of U.S. diplomatic overtures.
Trump said Tuesday that he thought Kent was a good guy, “but I always thought he was weak on security,” and Kent’s statement reinforced that view.
“When I read his statement, I realized it’s good that he’s out,” Trump said.
Polls show Americans are divided over the war, and some Republican strategists worry that if it drags on, it could seriously damage GOP candidates in the midterms in November.
A national NBC News poll conducted just as the strikes began found a sharp partisan divide, with 77% of Republicans saying the US should have struck Iran, while 15% disagreed.
Among those who identify with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, the number was even higher, with 90% of self-identified MAGA-aligned Republicans supporting the strikes. A majority of Democrats, 89%, said the US should not have struck Iran, with 58% of independents.
Sen. A longtime skeptic of US wars abroad. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Kent was a welcome voice “for caution” and “we will miss his presence.”
Daniel Davis, a retired Army officer who, like Kent, served multiple combat tours, called Kent’s resignation “moral courage” and said the strikes should weigh heavily on him and others who share his opinion.
“I wonder how both he and Tulsi could continue this work, knowing how he felt,” Davis said on his podcast “Deep Dive.” “I couldn’t imagine working under those conditions. And now we see that Joe couldn’t do it in good conscience. He couldn’t move on.”
Davis is a fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank, which takes a skeptical view of foreign military intervention, and was nominated to serve with Kent in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But Gabbard withdrew her nomination in March over her critical views on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Gabbard railed against Trump on Iran last year. In March, he told lawmakers that intelligence indicated Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, and that the administration had not revived a weapons program suspended in 2003.
Asked about the assessment in June, Trump said: “I don’t care what they say.”
