Senate confirms Jan. 6 denier Joseph Kent to head counterterrorism center
The Republican-controlled Senate voted along sharply partisan lines Wednesday to confirm Joseph Kent as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, approving his nomination over objections from Democrats who cited his embrace of conspiracy theories and attempts to alter intelligence reports as disqualifying.
Kent, a former Army Special Operations and CIA officer who has served as a top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was confirmed by a 52-44 vote to head the center, created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to analyze and integrate intelligence relating to transnational terrorism, including threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad.
Republicans cited his combat experience and government posts as qualifications. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) noted that Kent’s first wife, Shannon, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in northern Syria in 2019.
Democrats warned that Kent’s embrace of unsubstantiated theories, including that the FBI played a role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and his past association with white-supremacist groups made him uniquely unqualified to run a key intelligence unit.
The core principles of intelligence are “objectivity, nonpartisanship and fidelity to fact,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “Mr. Kent has shown time and again that he cannot meet that standard.”
As an aide to Gabbard, Kent earlier this year pressured analysts at the National Intelligence Council, a prestigious analytic hub, to alter a report that concluded the Venezuelan government did not direct the activities of the Tren de Aragua cartel, according to emails that emerged later. That analysis undercut Trump’s rationale for deporting suspected gang members without due process under the Alien Enemies Act.
The intelligence report was not changed. Gabbard quickly fired Michael Collins, the head of the NIC, and his deputy.
Kent’s past comments on Russia had clouded his nomination by Trump. Shortly after Russia’s invasion, Kent described President Vladimir Putin’s demands on Ukrainian territory as “very reasonable.”
His past associations with far-right extremists also came under scrutiny during two failed bids for Congress. In 2021, Kent discussed social media tactics for his campaign with antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Separately, Kent drew praise from Joey Gibson, who founded Patriot Prayer, a far-right group known for clashing with activists on the left. He later sought to distance himself from extremist groups.
Kent, who was endorsed by Trump in both of his bids for Congress, has also repeated conspiracies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.
He wrote about meeting Trump as he waited to receive his wife’s body to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in a 2020 opinion piece for NBC News, saying that Trump’s “empathy and thoughtfulness on one of the worst days of my life won my gratitude.”