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Tucker Carlson: “The only winner of [another endless Middle Eastern war] is…”

Featuring: Tucker Carlson, Conservative, Right-wing | Political Commentator, Former Fox News Host | National

Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director

Published March 18, 2026 | Video Starts at 09:39

And we have to figure out how to apportion power. And we don't want to get sidetracked with engagements like, I don't know, another endless Middle Eastern war, because in the end, The only winner of [another endless Middle Eastern war] is China. is China in this specific case. Whoever in the end settles this conflict, whether it's the United States or some other power, whoever comes in at whatever the end of it is and says, enough, this is hurting the world. (09:39–09:43)

CLAIM

Asserts that China benefits from prolonged Middle Eastern conflicts.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Tucker Carlson

“Joe Kent, who later went on to become, until yesterday, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 00:07-00:14
“As far as we can tell, and we've checked, only one person [was punished for the Afghan withdrawal], and that would be Colonel Stu Scheller.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 05:33-05:40
“You saw the Israelis blow up Qatari natural gas facilities today in the Qatari natural gas field, which feeds the rest of the world LNG.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 53:55-54:06
“The current president was the subject of a near successful assassination attempt, like recently.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:45:00-1:45:07
“The US has admitted we did it [bombing of the girls school attached to the Iranian naval base].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:59:40-1:59:43
“Joe Kent was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 00:06-00:14
“Joe Kent resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 00:06-00:14
“We haven't reached that stage [of being trapped in a war with Iran].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 02:41-02:44
“This could be the beginning of the end of our influence in a lot of the world.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 03:02-03:07
“You saw the same thing happen in the days after the tragic and incredibly stupid Afghan withdrawal under Joe Biden.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 05:13-05:23
“It was a terrible thing and resulted in the deaths of a lot of Americans.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 05:28-05:32
“The Iraq war didn't help us, it hurt us.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 08:41-08:46
“China is a major consumer of Gulf energy.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 10:01-10:06
“Israel got us into this war.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 12:40-12:43
“The war in Iraq and the conflict in Syria were driven by Israel.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 12:40-12:43
“Joe Kent spent well the majority of his 20s and 30s fighting Iranian proxies and watching his friends get killed by them.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 15:59-16:09
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 19:36-19:40
“There was no intelligence that showed an imminent threat from Iran to the United States.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 19:36-19:40
“We knew that Israel was going to attack Iran. And in retaliation for those attacks by Israel against Iran, Iran might attack American…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 21:19-21:29
“The imminent threat that the Secretary of State is describing is not from Iran, it's from Israel.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 21:29-21:35
“The Houthis ability to close the Red Sea, which they've not yet done, but which would be catastrophic to the world.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 24:11-24:17
“The President has said many times to many people, including the public, [that] Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 30:11-30:18
“Was Iran on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 30:29-30:35
“Then why was the President, was he told that they were on the brink of it?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 32:40-32:47
“Why at the beginning of every conversation about Iran would the President say I don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 32:46-32:52
“There was no intelligence that showed they were on the cusp of building a nuclear weapon.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 38:41-38:45
“There was no intelligence indeed that showed they were trying to build a nuclear weapon.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 38:44-38:48
“US Policymakers made their decisions on the basis of intelligence collected and, or vetted by our intelligence.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 39:21-39:30
“Israeli officials short circuited the entire US Government and just went right to American policymakers.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 39:35-39:42
“Israeli government talking points laundered through Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 43:43-43:48
“A substantial portion of our information touches Israel at some point. Either it's collected by them, it is shaped by them, it's not purely…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 45:19-45:29
“The Israelis don't have a plan because they don't care.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 47:24-47:27
“There's no plan for what happens after regime change [in Iran].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 50:25-50:29
“We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon, which they didn't have and weren't trying to build in any imminent way.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 53:31-53:37
“Larjani, I think, was killed by the Israelis.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 53:52-53:55
“After the 12 day war there was no Iranian nuclear threat. We got rid of it.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 57:54-57:58
“Six months later getting another lecture about their nuclear capability and its imminent threat to the United States.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 58:14-58:19
“There was no organized protest against this.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 58:23-58:27
“Internally in the intel world, people say, what the hell is going on?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 58:33-58:37
“Neocons use [a recent terror attack] as a way to try and censor, shut down, maybe even imprisonment, critics of the decision to go to war in…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:05:39-1:05:50
“You advocate for a war which inevitably stokes religious hatred because you advocate for the killing of a religious leader.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:05:53-1:06:01
“High ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:08:10-1:08:23
“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:08:32-1:08:43
“Assad must go was not an organic American desire; it reflected the priorities of Israel.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:19:40-1:19:43
“Since it was clear that we were being pushed by the Netanyahu government into this war, they chose the timing.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:23:48-1:23:55
“What kind of pressure does it require to get a president who campaigned against exactly this thing for 10 years to do exactly this thing?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:24:17-1:24:28
“Can you flesh that out a little bit more? What were you told was the reason to prevent you, as a federal intelligence official running the…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:30:56-1:31:12
“The U.S. government is, its core function is to investigate crime, particularly murder.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:32:54-1:33:00
“It's the government's job [to investigate this murder].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:32:55-1:33:00
“The response I received from the FBI was so hostile that it confused me, and it still does confuse me a lot.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:41:44-1:41:55
“We got a lot of his online activity, which we've been told didn't exist.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:42:05-1:42:09
“This was not an attack on the FBI. This was, of course, during the last administration with a different director.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:42:09-1:42:15
“Which is to say a fake rule that you're not allowed to gather information about anything that might potentially intersect with an ongoing…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:44:18-1:44:30
“The President issued an executive order calling for the total declassification release of all documents relevant to the assassination of…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:47:29-1:47:42
“I don't think all the Kennedy documents have been released, have they?”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:47:52-1:47:57
“I have been told conclusively that [the declassification of JFK assassination documents] has not happened.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:48:14-1:48:18
“The fact that the government doesn't have to tell you what it's doing, even though you pay for it, just invalidates the whole concept of…”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:50:53-1:51:02
“The war with Iran is potentially like the end of a lot for the United States.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:52:46-1:52:54
“That's how long they've been pushing for [a war with Iran].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:53:01-1:53:03
“And that is the path we're on [demanding total surrender with boots on the ground].”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:54:15-1:54:17
“We've had sanctions for decades, and according to the neocons, they had no effect on the nuclear program.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:57:42-1:57:51
“We've had sanctions for decades, and I don't see how we benefited from that at all.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:57:53-1:57:58
“Some of these strikes, not all, but some, were conducted with the intent of making a negotiated settlement impossible.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 1:59:21-1:59:30
“It's entirely possible the coordinates were given to us by Israel.”
Joe Kent Reveals All in First Interview Since Resigning as Trump's Counterterrorism Director | Uploaded March 18, 2026 | 2:00:22-2:00:26