Joe Kent casts his lot with the Carlson/Owens wing of …
… of some group or other. I don’t know exactly what to call them, because they’re certainly not conservative. “Far right” indicates they actually are on the right, and I think they really merit their own designation because the actual right disowns them (rightly). We could call them neo-Nazis, but they don’t have the tattoos or other regalia.
At any rate, Joe Kent, who’s enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame, appeared on Carlson’s show yesterday. That’s no surprise; he’s been allied with Carlson for years and appeared on his show as early as the Fox News days (see this).
Some tidbits from the interview; it’s astounding this guy was in US government intelligence till just the other day. And I bet he’s not alone in these sentiments:
After resigning this week over what he said was Israel’s manipulation of President Donald Trump into war with Iran, former national counterterrorism director Joe Kent is now insinuating Israel may have also killed Charlie Kirk as part of its pressure campaign.
Kent made the comments on a Wednesday evening appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, as the FBI launched an investigation into whether Kent shared classified material. He is also scheduled to appear Thursday evening at a “Catholics for Catholics” gala featuring podcaster Candace Owens, who has promulgated antisemitic conspiracy theories and praised Kent.
“When one of President Trump’s closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point,” Kent told Carlson about the 2025 murder of the right-wing pundit. “It’s a data point that we need to look into.”
He’s going to be appearing with Owens, too, which makes perfect sense considering his views.
Carlson has also taken it upon himself to defend the British Fascist Oswald Moseley. I think one of the things he’s doing is exploiting the historical ignorance of the young.
Lastly, I wonder – with zero evidence, so this is truly just a thought – whether the investigation of Kent for leaking (an investigation which started prior to his resignation) has to do with leaking information to Carlson or Owens or both.
Birds of shit-for-brains flock together.
It’s disturbing that someone this unhinged was serving in such a high position. I knew he was an isolationist but I really didn’t think he was this batsh*t crazy. There are probably others like him still serving and they need to be fired.
It’s not well-known, but this Elvis Costello song is about the fascist Oswald Mosley:
________________________________
Calling Mister Oswald with the swastika tattoo
There is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo
—Elvis Costello, “Less Than Zero”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJygTz0gB6g
________________________________
Later Costello explained:
________________________________
“Less Than Zero” was a song I had written after seeing the despicable Oswald Mosley being interviewed on BBC television. The former leader of the British Union of Fascists seemed unrepentant about his poisonous actions of the 1930s. The song was more of a slandering fantasy than a reasoned argument.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less_than_Zero_(Elvis_Costello_song)
one was reminded len deighton, passed recently, he was an airman in the post war era, the creator of Harry Palmer, not named in the book,* a very down to earth spy, who works for a non descript government (WOCP) I think it was called, this was after Bond,
coined the more glamorous upper crust operative, and before Lecarre if memory served,
*Michael Caine, played Harry, who curiously enough is the name of the protagonist in the kingsman played bycolin firth, but his boss is played by Caine, as atreacherous mandarin, much like the villains in Ipcress, working with the Villain
it is said he was inspired by the Tyler Kent affair, about an American cipher clerk, who was leaking to the Germans from his perch in the American Embassy,
in retrospect the plot sounds more like the Cambridge 5 cadre of Soviet agents,
@ Neo > “… of some group or other. I don’t know exactly what to call them, because they’re certainly not conservative.”
Free-Range anti-Semitic Idiots?
FRASI – has kind of a nice ring to it.
But perhaps not quite yet full-bore Fascist-Stasi (to avoid invoking Godwin’s Law*, which is now heeded about as much as immigration laws under Biden Inc.)
*Wikipedia: “Godwin’s law (coined 1990), short for Godwin’s law of Nazi analogies, is an Internet adage asserting: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” The law’s creator, Mike Godwin, maintains these comparisons often trivialize the Holocaust. It is an example of the reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy”
“Joe Kent is now insinuating Israel may have also killed Charlie Kirk as part of its pressure campaign.”
It is always to be welcomed when people reveal who they are and what really lies within their hearts. Kent, Carlson, Owens and Fuentes are being cheered on from the depths of hell by Hitler. No doubt he’s looking forward to making their acquaintance.
By praising 1930s fascists, they’re revealing themselves. And the theme that Israel had something to do with murdering Charlie Kirk is just beyond comprehension.
I am not myself Catholic, but I am sure that this “Catholics for Catholics” event is deeply offensive to actual traditional Catholics.
Recall that TC hosted and lauded a rando from Stockton, Ca. named ‘Daryl Cooper’, who went on his program to advance the thesis that the murder of 2/3 of European Jewry was an unintended result of Hitler not knowing what to do with all these mouths in the old Pale of Settlement and, btw, Churchill was a villain. TC is incensed that the chairman of the British Union of Fascists, a man who was personally acquainted with both Hitler and Mussolini and pushing German diplomatic maneuvers as late as the fall of 1939, was interned for three years during the war.
… but I am sure that this “Catholics for Catholics” event is deeply offensive to actual traditional Catholics
It is indeed. I have come across their ilk from time to time. I would describe them as willfully ignorant.
I’ve never liked the designations “left” and “right ” because they suggest that there is no truth–only different points of view. (As I understand, these terms derived from the French Estates General where pro-monarchists sat on the right, anti-monarchists on the left. )
I consider myself to be a conservative because I believe that truth corresponds to reality–and that there is such a thing. In other words, I am pro-truth and pro-reality..
The left on the other hand is comprised of relativists. Power is the desired end. But if there is no transcendent truth, then what makes something right? Might. Ultimately violence.
The language of “left” and “right” contributes to the view that reality is a matter of perspective. We desperately need a common metaphysics if we are to have any peace in this world.
Excellent comment, Davemay.
@Mike Plaiss: “I have come across their ilk from time to time. I would describe them as willfully ignorant.” I see no sign that Candace or Tucker has ever been properly catechized in the Catholic faith or any other.
Davemay
That is not going to happen. Number one conflict is always the dynamic of the human race. Peace is a rarity. Number two I do not see anything changing the quest for power that has been defining the human race since the beginning.
Ultimately I distrust any effort to make people have the same goal including the quest for ultimate truth. Within that lay the seeds of mass murders, war crimes, concentration camps.
I don’t think this is fixable. I put my faith in Christ and my Church. Nothing else. We are who we are.
Richard Cook,
I don’t disagree. The only thing that makes sense to me in this often absurd existence is Christ on the cross. I believe ultimately he is the truth, way, and life.
Our battle–and it is a battle–is not against flesh and blood. We have to “live not by lies” and fight for truth. Balance must be restored.
For me these folks that hide behind the phrases “it’s a data point we need to look into” and “I’m just asking questions” are the worst sort of political cowards.
Such folk TC, CO, increasingly M. Kelly, now adding Joe Kent are problematically Conspiracy Theorists. But since they are anti-Jew conspiracies, which Dems like, the media doesn’t label them accurately.
They’re not like most partisans who push only half truth, 2/4s: either Dem good & Rep bad truth, or Dem bad & Rep good truth (like most of Neo’s fine posts).
They’re conspiracy believing folk often pushing both Dem bad, and Rep bad. For these popular bozos, they add “because of bad Jews”.
Which Tom Lehrer all too accurately noted in his National Brotherhood Week song (Oh the white folk, hate the black folk … and the Muslims, hate the Hindus, and) everybody hates the Jews.
The hate that’s all too popular.
“We could call them neo-Nazis”
But the Nazis were the German socialists, definitely not right wing.
According to Nellie Bowles,
That is Candace Owens-level derangement right there.
Kent is a symptom of a larger problem. So many “conspiracy theories” of the past ten years or so have turned out to be true that it has destroyed the institutional safeguards against quackery.
That’s what I don’t think our early 21st century elite ever understood. It’s why you cannot lie for the sake of the system. Lying doesn’t actually protect the system or protect the institutions, it actually facilitates their destruction. Russiagate, COVID, you name it. They all gave credibility to the kooks and made the institutions look like liars (because they were, for the most part). Kent, Carlson, Owens, (most here would not, but I put Trump in this category too), they are all the instruments of destruction selected by the bureaucrats and elites who thought it was OK to lie to the public for the sake of the system.
I really don’t know how the right is going to push this garbage back. It doesn’t take much effort to re-purpose all of the arguments made to justify Trump’s bad behavior to justify playing footsie with the Tucker wing. The template for accommodation is already there, and it has been internalized by a lot of people on the right. Further, without catering to the Tucker/Candace wing, I don’t think the right has much chance to win elections. Vance appears to understand that.
I’m very much afraid that it’s going to take leadership on the right who would rather lose than win beholden to a bunch of anti-Semitic cranks. Most of the folks on the right with enough backbone to do that have been driven into retirement over the past ten years.
This is what happens when you’ve made a deal with the devil. The deal keeps getting worse.
Call them neo-isolationists?
So Kent, Carlson, Owens and Trump are responsible for Covidgate, Russiagate, Autopengate, Wideopenbordersgate, Inflationgate, Semitruckersgate, Transgendergate, DEIgate, Alienvotersgate, Killeducationgate, Destroytheuniversitiesgate, Somaliscamgriftstealgate, Socialsecuritygate, Januarysixthgate, Etceteragate?
Gosh! Who knew?!!
CC™ knew that “yhe deal with the devil” was actually electing President Donald J Trump, aka, The Great Orange Whale (TGOW) twice.
Just to remind CC™ that despite all his work, TGOW, is still the POTUS, and CC™ is still a crank.
One more thing that that fearsome foursome is responsible for:
“FBI Misled Court To Spy on Second Trump Campaign Adviser”—
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/03/20/fbi_misled_court_to_spy_on_second_trump_campaign_adviser_1171646.html
H/T Powerline blog.
And all those others that were totally screwed because…the Democrats just gotta save America!
Joe Kent is just another reminder of the sorts of people that populate the stinking sewer that is the govt bureaucracy.
And speaking of right vs left; my take on this is that the political state of the USA today is very similar to how things were in the 1850s; there were irreconcilable differences betwixt the north and south which ultimately led to the south simply rejecting the results of the 1860 presidential election.
I think the issues we face are replicated in one Occidental country after another (and some in the affluent Orient as well). You might say the level of antagonism is beginning to resemble the late antebellum period here and to a degree there. Another analogue is late Bourbon France, though I don’t think the issues are as severe. A third, on a foreshortened scale, would be Late Antiquity in the Roman world.
Barry Meislin – Kent et al., responsible for Russiagate etc.? Can you actually read? That’s not at all what I said. I consider Trump, Kent, Carlson, etc., to all be part of the blow back against elite blindness and lies. But they didn’t cause it, they’ve just exploited it.
As to my second point, show me an argument used to excuse Trump that can’t be easily repurposed to justify Tucker 2028 or a 2028 Vance candidacy that actively courts the Tucker vote?
– Don’t you know what time it is?
– The country will be literally over if Democrats win.
– We go to war with the candidate we have.
– Yeah, I don’t like it when [candidate] does [whatever], but the other side is much worse.
– Both candidates are crazy, but [candidate] is crazy and does things I agree with about half the time. The other guy/gal is just crazy.
– [candidate] was the lesser of two evils.
Inconvenient fact 1: Trump is the one who put Kent in power, and the one who put Vance in power and hasn’t leaned on him to disown the Carlson/Owens wing. (If Trump could make Rubio wear oversized shoes, don’t you think he could also get Vance to speak out against Tucker’s nuttery?)
Inconvenient fact 2: If you split MAGA in the GOP primaries between Carlson/Owens anti-Semites and non-anti-Semites, the good guys are going to have to team up with the non-MAGA Republicans to win. If the MAGA, but not willing to go along with Tucker/Owens faction is as small as I suspect, you might even have to vote for Niki Haley.
The GOPs best hope is for this Iran war to mercifully go well, leaving Rubio in tact as the obvious non-MAGA GOP/non-Tucker MAGA fusion candidate.
I have noticed for quite a while how for an “educated” fellow Carlson is incredibly historically ignorant.
Btw a minor point – it is Oswald Mosley not Oswald Moseley (as I have seen in several articles).
Also Mosley was not the head of the opposition, it was Clement Attlee who entered the War Cabinet in a sign of unity.
*Before everybody twists what I said, of course that’s not the only reason and certainly not even the best reason to hope for a quick and decisively victory over Iran.
BrooklynBoy – Sometimes education blinds a person to what they do not know.
“… of some group or other. I don’t know exactly what to call them, because they’re certainly not conservative.”
Hatefluencers
or if you wanted something more sesquipedalian: Cretinous Fabulist Eristics
With CC™ it always circles back to The Great Orange Whale, he is responsible for Joe Kent’s delusional betrayal, eh, CC™?
Joe Kent is just another reminder of the sorts of people that populate the stinking sewer that is the govt bureaucracy.
==
He’s a political appointee. The man has his virtues and shortcomings.
Bauxite–“Most of the folks on the right with enough backbone to do that have been driven into retirement over the past ten years.”
Who are/were these people? Sincere question.
Joe Kent, wingnut:
https://instapundit.com/784139/#disqus_thread
I’m very much afraid that it’s going to take leadership on the right who would rather lose than win beholden to a bunch of anti-Semitic cranks. Most of the folks on the right with enough backbone to do that have been driven into retirement over the past ten years.
==
Yeah. When I think of ‘backbone’, I think of John Kasich and Bob Corker.
==
No one is ‘beholden’ to Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and, any more than they were beholden to Charles Johnson. They’re podcasters.
Sharon W.: “Sincere question [of bauxy]”
You are not looking in the right place for a sincere answer.
he gave him a shot and he blew it, again the turnabout is so rapid as to make it seem suspicious, I didn’t want to think of Kent like Richard Clarke,who made himself a superstar, in some circles, padding somereheated material
in part because of a partnership between the Scowcroft and the Counterterrorism center under Paul Pillar,who turned in a few screeds on the Atlantic as well
a few book length tracks, labeled fiction, starting with Scorpion Gate,
each one was more ludicrous than the next,
Throw Megyn Kelly in there too.
I am deeply disappointed in Kelly. She has gone goofy.
Amadeus 48:
But I think “goofy” is much too kind. She’s too smart not to know what she’s doing. I believe she’s made a cynical calculation.
They are just on the make. Why care?