Senate confirms Trump's pick for counterterrorism agency, a former Green Beret with extremist ties [View all]
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.
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