Senate confirms Trump's pick for counterterrorism agency, a former Green Beret with extremist ties

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, on Wednesday evening as Republicans looked past his connections to right-wing extremists and support for conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Kent won confirmation on a 52-44 vote tally with Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina the only Republican nay vote. Kent had already been working for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. As the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, he will oversee an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.

In the role, he plans to devote agency resources to targeting Latin American gangs and other criminal groups tied to migration. He is the latest Donald Trump loyalist to win Senate confirmation to the upper echelons of U.S. national security leadership at a time when Trump is stretching his presidential wartime powers to accomplish his goals.

“President Trump is committed to identifying these cartels and these violent gang members and making sure that we locate them and that we get them out of our country,” Kent said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee in April.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/senate-confirms-trumps-pick-counterterrorism-220811275.html

US Senate confirms Joe Kent to lead a national intelligence agency

Kent lost two consecutive runs to represent southwest Washington in the U.S. House. Sen. Patty Murray slammed him as uniquely unqualified for the job.

Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces soldier and two-time Republican candidate for Congress in Washington state, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

The 52-44 vote comes nearly six months after President Donald Trump nominated Kent to lead the center. Kent has worked as a top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during his confirmation process.

“He has dedicated his career to fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe,” U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said in urging the nomination be affirmed. “For Joe, this mission is both patriotic and sadly personal as his first wife, Shannon, was tragically killed while serving in Syria in 2019.”

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/07/30/us-senate-confirms-joe-kent-to-lead-a-national-intelligence-agency/

Reminds me of John Ashcroft. Missouri rejected him so G DUHbya made him AG.

[Celerity]

1. kick

[Ping Tung]

2. Did they mention that he's also an anti-abortion zealot?

It was a pleasure for me to vote against him twice.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. "presidential wartime powers" - despite no war, people let him get away with this shit

They searched hard for any gang from Venezuela, then made up crap about "any Venezuelan with a tattoo is a member of it", and pretended this gang was somehow "invading" the USA because of all the tattoos they could see. And so it is "a war" - though less than, say, "the war on drugs". But that gives Trump the excuse to appoint a nutcase (thinks federal agents were responsible for the attempted Jan 6 coup) who pals around with (and pays) racists.

[regnaD kciN]

4. The guy who gave us a Democrat (well, DINO, but whatever) in WA-3...

…a seat that was practically impossible for
Republicans to lose. And he lost it twice.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Maddow Blog-Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist Joe Kent confirmed to lead National Counterterrorism Center

The far-right former Green Beret has been credibly accused of brazenly trying to politicize intelligence. Senate Republicans voted to confirm him anyway.

Joe Kent is a Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist with ties to right-wing extremists, who’s been credibly accused of trying to politically manipulate intelligence.

Senate Republicans — including the “moderates” — confirmed him to lead the National Counterterrorism Center. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-31T12:16:26.978Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/joe-kent-republican-confirmed-senate-national-counterterrorism-center-rcna221923

With this in mind, it might not have been especially surprising when the White House tapped Joe Kent to serve as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He did, after all, run two failed campaigns for the U.S. House in the state of Washington in 2022 and 2024 following a career in the military and CIA........

Despite — or perhaps, because of — this record, the Republican has spent recent months working as the acting chief of staff to Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director, while waiting for his Senate confirmation vote. In this role, he’s been accused of brazenly trying to politicize intelligence, allegedly ordering analysts to “rewrite” intelligence assessments to help the White House.

Under the traditional rules of politics, accusations such as these from U.S. intelligence professionals, bolstered by documentary evidence, would’ve led the president to pull Kent’s nomination. But in 2025, Trump stuck with his nominee anyway and told Senate Republicans to confirm him, and GOP senators did as they were told.

As The Seattle Times reported when Trump nominated Kent, the counterterrorism center the Republican will now lead “coordinates the nation’s strategy against terrorism and maintains a national repository of known and suspected terrorists. It operates as a partnership of organizations including the CIA, FBI and Defense Department.”

The president’s recent record on counterterrorism has been awful. With Kent leading the National Counterterrorism Center, it’s difficult to be optimistic that the administration’s handling of the issue will improve any time soon.