Joe Kent

I don't agree with that, and I had to resign.

Because basically, if that's the bar that we're going to have, then we're going to need to start a lot more wars for a lot more countries.

I think when you assess intelligence, there's intent versus capability.

I think that's absolutely key.

There's a lot of people who intend to do us harm who are just some guy yelling on the Internet, and they have no capability.

And then there's other actors that have the capability to do us harm, and they don't have the intent.

Again, we had so much data, even, you know—

over 20 years of conflict with the Iranians, but especially under President Trump and the post-Qasem Soleimani strike era of seeing what the Iranians' exploratory ladder was, but especially since the 12-day war.

I mean, so at this juncture, when we had negotiators back in the negotiating table, it was pretty clear that the Iranians weren't going to do a preemptive strike on us, that they weren't going to strike unless they were stricken first by the Israelis.

And the Israelis sued this, which is why they took the action that they did.

Right.

Let's talk about Trump now.

So, I mean, and I'm saying this from a very visceral feeling.

I truly understand what you're trying to do.

You're trying to influence President Trump.

You did resign in protest because you ultimately felt you can't serve.

But per your reasoning, it's to try and influence Trump.

Much of the meta narrative here is about how the Israelis manipulated Trump.

But isn't Trump responsible?

Like he's the commander in chief.