3/20/26: Saagar X Joe Kent: RESIGNATION, Israeli NUKES, Epstein, Charlie Kirk, Mike Huckabee

23:29I mean, do you think a ground invasion is coming? What's your personal assessment? I don't I look I don't know any like secret I don't know any military plans I couldn't give them up even if I did um but the president has said all all options are on the table and one thing I do know from being in combat for most of my adult life is that things can change very very quickly and there's decisions you think that you're going to have time to make but you don't necessarily have that time if you have capabilities deployed um they they tend to be used. I mean, if military commanders feel that their troops are in danger or if they've been given a military objective of, hey, we need to take out all the ballistics, we need to take out the Iranian Navy, we need to take out the IRGC, and they have those resources on hand, they'll deploy them.

24:14Look, I respect everybody that's at CENTCOM right now. I spent most of my life in the CENTCOM AOR. But CENTCOM is a very big war machine. And that's a good thing if you can actually reign them in. However, what I've learned in 20 plus years of seeing this play out is that if you give CENTCOM vague guidance or even kind of like relatively specific guidance, like they're going to run until you yank them back in. It's what they do. You've got to be able to really tame that lethal machine. And that's what makes me nervous right now, where this could happen really quickly. So my assessment, this is based on several sources, people who I've spoken to.

24:51What I'm told is that I see a lot of Pentagon leaders, they've come out anonymously and they're leaking. They're like, no, we warned Trump about the Straits of Hormuz. From what I know, that's not 100 % true. Again, I am not absolving Trump of any responsibility. They certainly told him that it was going to be a potential issue, but they sold a much more optimistic vision at the beginning. This is not just the Israelis. This is also our own chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who I'm speaking about specifically. And the narrative, again, that I've been told is that the people who did share that view were excised from their command, which you could see it's public knowledge.

25:29It's been reported out there. I'm curious for what you heard about the way that that went down, many of those critical meetings in the Situation Room. You know, I think the imagery that's been publicly released is very telling, where you had one small group that was down in Mar-a-Lago that night, and then you had the rest up at the Situation Room at the time. Look, in the lead-up to the 12-day war, we were having very robust debates that were part of the National Security Council process. The principal small group, we'd have the deputies committee meetings. We'd have very robust debates with all 18 intelligence agencies, with the joint chief's staff, et cetera.

26:08And that played out over the course of about a month in the lead-up to the 12-day war. And to include that, I had a midnight hammer where a lot of us said, okay, fine, if you bomb these sites, that's all well and good. We take out Iran's ability to enrich. That meets our strategic objective. Problem is the Israelis are going to come right back to us in a couple months and demand more because their goal is regime change. Like they're not beating around the bush about this. And so that was known. And so from my optic in the lead up to this last iteration, that process didn't play out. And people can say, oh, Kent doesn't know because he wasn't invited.

26:44But I can tell you the robust debate with the deputies, committees, National Security Council, that just that simply wasn't happening. Iveme is built for losing weight and moving forward. Iveme is built for feeling your best and seeing results. Iveme is a medical weight loss program built for you. Their approach is individualized, virtual, integrative medicine. 99.2 % of patients who completed the IVIM weight loss protocol achieved meaningful change, dropping an average of 45 pounds. IVIM, built for your wellness journey. IVIM, built for real life. When you sign up right now, you can get a one-month free trial.

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28:41Taxes are finally transparent, easier, and handled. Visit TurboTax.com. Only available with TurboTax full-service experts. Real-time updates only in iOS mobile app. What if your soda actually did something for you? Introducing Sky Pop Protein Soda. Sky Pot Protein Soda has 10 grams of complete protein, zero sugar, and real delicious soda taste. Sky Pot Protein Soda. Reach for the sky. Get your Sky Pot Protein Soda now at Target. So to non-nerd speak, I think this is important. What you just laid out is a normal process. The deputies committee, principals committee, NSC, all options and views are presented to the president.

29:20Even the Iraq war, the most disastrous thing in the world, or at least in my lifetime, time that played out that way. That's how it did. You can go and you can read about it. What you are talking about is effectively a bespoke process, which played out with some advisors down in Mar-a-Lago, others in the Situation Room. I guess you are confirming, by the way, the White House told us that there was nothing to be seen about that. But from your telling, obviously, there was something that we could gleam a little bit from that takeaway. So I do think it's very important to say then that if some bespoke process played out, We have to really investigate that bespoke process and the information that was getting to Trump then and also now.

29:57And so, again, I respect your want to not play the palace intrigue story. But I will say for people like me, it is deeply frustrating to watch people who told us to our face privately and publicly, we're not going to do this. And then it happened. And what we've seen publicly reported is that when you took your concerns to the vice president and to the DNI, that they told you not to make a big thing about it. I wonder if you can comment about your frustration. First of all, if you can tell us whether that report is true or not, but really to just to tell us what that tension is like for the people who ostensibly did share those views and what they're doing right now in the way that they're even voicing any concern to Donald Trump.

30:49In terms of the process, it was just frustrating to see the stark night and day difference. I got to a place where I was okay with Midnight Hammer because we had had such a robust debate. And I've heard criticisms of me where they say, hey, if you don't like what the president's doing as one of his appointees, then go ahead and voice your opinion behind closed doors, offer other options. When he smacks the table, you salute and move out. Okay, that was where I was at with the 12-Day War and with Midnight Hammer because our voices were heard. It was a robust debate. And at the end of the day, hey, you know, we lose, whatever.

31:21That's fine. Live the fight another day. This last iteration, like I said, that didn't play out. And even if they wanted to just kick me out, you know, I've heard people say, well, they kicked Ken out because, you know, whatever. He talked to Tucker Carlson or something. Okay, that's fine. But then there still was plenty of other deputies they could have had in that meeting. Actually, a pretty robust staff that would offer a wide variety of options. And I just didn't see that play out. And there was, there is frustration with that internally. And, you know, like we talked about before, there's some guys who say, okay, I'm going to stay here.

31:49I'm going to say, you know, keep my eyes on target. And I think there's others that may be considering leaving. I, you know, I obviously, I report to the, NCTC director is kind of an odd job. You're a presidential appointee, president's chief counterterrorism advisor. So I technically report to the president, but then like for administrative functions, I'm also report to the DNI, but I'm also her counterterrorism advisor and just, you know, to be obviously, I think most people know, friends with Tulsi prior to being in these positions. I served as her chief of staff before I was confirmed. I ran the beachhead team and the landing team for her before she was confirmed.

32:26So we have a good relationship. I brought my frustrations to her over and over again. And then same thing, the vice president has always been, I'd say, given me probably more time than he should. Very, very generous. He's got a lot of people that want to get in his ear and he would always give me the time of day whenever I said I I had a concern, so I'm deeply appreciative of that. And so, you know, he would hear me out when it came time for me to resign. I wanted to do it the proper way. I said, hey, I'm happy to take my letter into the president and to resign to him, if that's proper. I got to speak with the vice president one-on-one.

32:59The DNI joined us. And then later I got a phone call from the president. Got it. But that was kind of the way it went down. So then how did you make of it when the president, Mac, I think we have this, he said he always thought you were weak on security. I mean, how does that feel personally? I assume you knew it was coming of some kind, but genuinely, like as a person who served your country, who served multiple combat tours, who lost your wife in combat. I mean, how does that feel? Does it make you question, you know, how this all went down the last year, probably two years of your life that you dedicated to serving him, to helping him get elected?

33:35No, I mean, all things considered, I wrote a pretty pointed letter. And for him to say that, you know, weak on security, I've seen the president be much harder on peaking before. So like, look, I kind of knew it was coming. People got to say what they got to say. Yeah. So at the end of the day, before I left, I had a really good phone call with the president. He called me and I believe that we parted on good terms. Okay. I mean, I think that's admirable. I do think it's kind of interesting. I've been talking about your situation with a lot of people. You're one of the only whistleblowers I've ever seen.

34:05You don't have to call yourself that. I'm saying I'm elevating you to somebody who's resigned. You're not whistleblowing or leaking anything. I just want to be very clear. But somebody of that caliber who is coming out, resigning in protests, who still seems to have some confidence in leadership. And I mean, we've talked about how you're squaring that circle. And again, I appreciate it because you're trying to make a tactical point about the problems that we have. At what point, though, do you think that other people need to follow your lead? Is it a ground invasion? Is it a, you know, a consideration of is it a feeling of not having your voice heard?

34:35Like, a lot of people are going to listen to you right now for guidance. I know that for a fact we're working in the United States government. What's your advice to them for the people who share your view? I think for my former colleagues, once they reach a point where they think that their advice and their counsel is not being heard, they need to consider doing what I did. And the calculus is going to be different for everybody. I understand there's even like, hey, can I pay my mortgage next week? There's those types of considerations as well. However, I would just, you know, really implore my former colleagues to just think about where we were at this time in 2003 in the Iraq war.

35:12How many lives could have been saved had more government officials said, no, I'm not going to do this? And honestly, those guys kind of had an excuse. 9-11 had just happened. We didn't have this access to media. We didn't have this access to information. I don't think our generation has an excuse. If you fought in the global war on terror, you don't have an excuse. We've seen this before. So I do think they need to reflect. If they're fighting in place, they're fighting on the inside, I completely respect that. However, if they reach a point where the options that they're offering aren't being heard at all, and they're not even allowed in the room, they're not even allowed at the chain of command, the reports aren't even being read, they've got to reflect internally and think about how this is going to impact future generations or impact the men and women that are going to have to go fight and die overseas.

36:00I want to just double click on that. What if Colin Powell had told the truth? Amen. Can you imagine the world? can you imagine that what that world the prestige of someone like that and i and i implore anyone listening to this to think about your comments and your background of your you know honestly i think you're you're almost faithful perhaps to a fault to the administration which i don't think has treated you particularly well uh but to look at somebody like you who has the courage and to think and reflect about what that could have had some sort of impact maybe we'll get there uh at At the end, it may be possible, but you probably want to be doing something about it, unlike Colin Powell, who went along and lied to the American people.

36:41Moving on here a little bit with Iran, a lot of our audience, we asked them for questions because they knew we were coming on. A lot of them actually want to hear some of your tactical breakdown. Why would, because I mean, one of the presumptions in your resignation is that more military escalation with Iran is bad, is a nightmare. Why don't you lay out that case? Beyond just loss of American life, American presidents can stomach that if it's for a greater objective. Clearly, you disagree. Why would more escalation or any sort of ground invasion, even a limited one like Carg Island, why would that cross a line for you?

37:16And why do you think it's a bad idea? Well, let's just start off. Actually, let's start with probably the most important thing. The most important thing if you're going to commit troops to a fight is you have to state up front what your strategic objective is. Why are we doing this? When this is all said and done, this will look like what? And that has not been clearly fleshed out. That has not been clearly articulated. We've said very vague things like, well, Iran's not going to have a nuclear weapon. We're going to take away their ballistic missiles. We're going to take away their Navy. Those are tactical things.

37:44Taking away equipment, essentially, capabilities. Those are tactical capabilities. I know some of them technically from the wonks out there have strategic impact. But that's not a true in-state. We actually have to have a true in-state. And if we're going to go with the whole regime change thing, we've got enough data from the last 20 years that anytime we try it, it ends up screwing up the region even more. So I think, number one, that swimwork hasn't been done as far as like putting people on Karag Island. I mean, I don't think you need to be a tactician to say if you commit troops to that, they're essentially going to be used as bait.

38:16Because Iran, regardless of how degraded we think some of their capabilities are, they can pin down that island with a good deal of ballistic missile, a good deal of drone fire. They could essentially cut off the straits. And then any ship that goes to reinforce them, any airplane that goes to reinforce them, it's just a matter of time before they can pick them off as well. So I think that that would tactfully be a massive blunder. And we would lose lives. And if we lose lives, then we're stuck in this cycle of, well, we lost lives. we have to double down and avenge them and we have to commit more.

38:48Taking the island didn't work, so now we just got to take all the beachheads and we'll secure the Straits of Hormuz by having soldiers and Marines, you know, like on the shore and for how long, for what end once again. So this is where I think the fight there is just, it could just end up being a massive quagmire. And look, and if our goal is regime change, the last thing that we should have done was kill the last Ayatollah who was putting a lid on the development of a nuclear weapon. and look, there's no formula. I think a lot of folks would have you believe, and this is kind of the Israeli theory of the case, if you kill enough of these guys, you're eventually going to get to the moderates.

39:21That's not the way this works. If you kill these guys, you're going to get more and more radical people. There's always been a tension in Iran between hardliners and the clergy and some of the more moderates, but then the IRGC in particular. And the IRGC, these are the soldiers of Qasem Soleimani and Soleimani was literally a very, very hardcore competent general. The IRGC's leadership, these guys, cut their teeth. They grew up fighting in the Iraq-Oran war. They grew up fighting us in Iraq. They grew up fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah against the Israelis. And then most of them fought heavily against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

39:55These are battle-hardened guys. And they've been screaming essentially at the clergy and a lot of the political leadership, like the guy who the Israelis just killed, Laron Johnny, and some of the other ones, Arachi, that, hey, you're going to soften the Americans. Like, let's go. Let's throw down. Let's use our proxies. Let's get deeper and deeper engaged in this. And so I think a major problem and a major quagmire we could have is that if we continue this cycle of just killing off their leaders, the whole country either fragments into absolute chaos, which is going to have the Libya effect on steroids, or we're going to just continue to get more and more hardline folks.

40:29And that's going to keep, like what the effect that's going to have on the Straits of Cormuz, that's going to impact global energy way more than it already even has in terms of not just fuel production, not just natural gas, but also what's going to happen the fertilizers in terms of, you know, being able to grow crops. So these are very, very big issues that, again, I don't think we did our homework on in terms of what's our strategic objective. Yeah. I want to turn a little bit to some comments you made with Tucker Carlson. You made some very ominous comments about the Butler assassination attempt and about Charlie Kirk's assassination.

41:00And I want to be super clear. Like, do you think that there was foreign involvement in the Charlie Kirk assassination? The only thing that I'll say for certain is that we did not get an opportunity to fully investigate the potential for foreign links. I'm not saying foreign governments, but I'm saying foreign links. That was NCTC's role. And I think just even a casual observer of the Charlie Kirk case will say, I know we got the guy that has his fingerprints on the gun, so it sounds like it's a slam dunk case, but most people, they know that there was folks posting online ahead of time that like Charlie Kirkstein died at UVU on this specific date.

41:37And so it seems that the investigation is complete. What I can tell you from our vantage point, from what NCTC's function was supposed to be, was investigating foreign links. And without getting into too many details, I can just say we didn't get the opportunity to fully run down every lead with foreign links. I'm not implicating any government. I'm not implicating any people. I'm just saying we were stopped from finishing our job. OK, and then tying that in back to the Iran question, clearly, I mean, look, I do frankly think there's been a lot of conspiracy stuff out there. However, you as you testified to in your Tucker interview, Charlie was a very vocal voice behind the scenes against the war with Iran.

42:16And what I'm trying to square is why exactly that this assassination has become almost like fan fiction, you know, in a really disgusting and grotesque way, in my opinion. However, when somebody so credible like you who was in charge of potential exploring foreign or foreign links, I have to take that very, very seriously. So do you remain like committed to this, I guess, committed to an anger or a frustration that you weren't allowed to do so? And is do you think that that had a potential impact on the current situation that we're in? Look, Charlie was one of the most vocal advocates that had access to the president from the outside against going to war with Iran.

43:04And at some point, we have to look at, like, the bigger picture. So you've given me credit for being very gracious to President Trump, and I am. And I think President Trump has a lot of agency, and I think he can turn this around. We got on this topic on Tucker's program because he said, like, we know Trump is a smart guy. Why did he let this happen? And I said there's two schools of thought. One is the most likely, which is what I outlined basically in my letter and what we've been talking about up to this point. The second is if you just take a look at the totality of things that could influence President Trump's decision making, you have the assassination attempt in Butler that in theory, the assassination attempt in Butler is not linked, according to the official narrative, to what took place of Asif Merchant, who was hired by the Iranians to come to America, hire a sniper, arrested two days prior to Butler.

43:50That case is shut. We're not allowed to ask any questions or see if there's any linkage between him and Crooks. We were told that Crooks was just a lone gunman, no online presence. We attempted to look into that, too. And essentially, we're blocked by the FBI. And Dan Bonjino disputes that. However, Tucker Carlson himself, his own investigative reporters, dug up the fact that Thomas Crooks did indeed have an online persona. And so all I'm saying is, like, we need to run that down because those are potential foreign links as well. As a matter of fact, Tucker's investigative journalists found some of those.

44:18So Trump's life was threatened. a few different times before he even took office in a very real way, obviously the most real way in Butler. And there's lots of unanswered questions there. And then there's multiple breaches of President Trump's security perimeter. And then we have what happened with Charlie. And Charlie was vocal against the 12-day war. He was vocal against Midnight Hammer. He eventually got on board because he supported the president. But in the lead up to Midnight Hammer, Charlie was in the Oval Office. And Brett Weinstein's confirmed this with text messages. Others have as well.

44:46People can say that Charlie and I didn't talk, But like I said on Tucker, the last time I saw him, and I can't pretend to be close with Charlie. I didn't even – I didn't have any touchbacks. This is from – but he saw me in the hallway, and we spoke a lot during the transition. He said, stop us from getting into war with Iran. And he was there to lobby the president for that. And then after Midnight Jammer, a lot of us in the more restrained camp said, the Israelis are going to come back to us and ask us to do this again. And Charlie was aware of that as well. Then Charlie is killed in September.

45:14Again, same thing. Are there links? Is there more leads to run down? all of that is stopped. And here we are with a nice, nice clean narrative that we're really kind of yelled at for questioning, which I don't fully understand. And so if you take all those things, you know, in totality, and I think one of President Trump's strong suits is he can take in large sets of information and he can come up with what the leverage points are, what the vulnerabilities are, and what his interest is. And so whether or not there is some grand conspiracy or not, there is a potential that he views all of that as a deciding factor.

45:48Again, that's not my number one theory of the case, but for some people who are saying like President Trump is too stupid or too smart to fall for all of this. And I don't think he's – I don't think he necessarily fell for it. I just think with the ecosystem that was created, I think he was heavily influenced. The alternative course of action is that he is under some degree of coercion. And so that's what Tucker and I were discussing there. Yeah, well, I mean that's why I brought it up. I mean, this is shocking stuff. And to have somebody of your caliber with the highest security clearance who served in the United States government, who served at the pleasure of the president, bring it up.

46:21I mean, it really troubles me. I talked about it on our show yesterday. I genuinely dismissed a lot of this as kookery. But to hear you talk about that makes me really question whether some of my initial dismissing specifically around Charlie Kirk was wrong or not. And so and you continue to to believe that there was a blocking of your investigation and that whether I guess some plot or not, that it created a potential impression in Trump's mind. I do want to make sure, though, on this Butler assassination, this Iranian alleged assassination attempt. Mac, we have that screenshot. Trump said, I believe I got the Ayatollah before he got me.

47:02So does your impression here then, he says, they tried me twice. Is your impression that this was an actual Iranian plot? Is it an Israeli plot? Because only if it was an Israeli plot would it make sense to try and box him into some sort of attack on Iran. What's your assessment here of the actual plot itself that was supposedly or may have been tied to Butler? So after Trump killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranians were rather vocal. I mean, you can find most of this. I mean, they said a lot of it publicly. That they were going to avenge Qasem Soleimani by targeting President Trump. So that's known.

47:36The only person that we know of that actually was deployed to America to work on this is Asif Mershan. And we know the Iranians sent him over here. We gave knowledge of that. So do we know that? See, that's what I think. Do we know that for sure? Like that's what I'm asking you. Was he actually sent by the government of Iran? Your assessment? To my knowledge, he was. To my knowledge, he was. Got it. Um, now again, like intent versus capability with the Iranians, um, they have other capabilities. And so I think the Iranians are pretty competent when they want to be. This seemed pretty half-assed to me.

48:11Um, if they were serious, cause these guys are serious. They, they, they know what it takes. I mean, come on, Kastum Salmani, you know, the people that he trained, Hezbollah, like when they're serious, they, they deploy serious people. I mean, you can look at the, the, the trial that's now been covered in Mershan. He's, he's not a serious guy. Could be dangerous. First, you have to take it seriously because, you know, unserious people can commit violence. And so, sure, I'm not downplaying the risk. I'm just saying it didn't seem to be that serious to me. But to my knowledge, the Iranians did deploy.

48:36They recruited him. They deployed him. He came here to the U.S. We had prior knowledge of that through intelligence means. And so when he came to America, he was basically, you know, in the pocket, unbeknownst to him, of the FBI. The FBI then leveraged a confidential human source at him. So there was never actually any, according to what we've learned from the trial, not a direct threat to the president. So that's as serious as that was. Now, there wasn't, in my opinion, enough due diligence done to see if there was anyone else that Marchant was speaking with that could be tied to Butler because Butler got wrapped up just so quickly.

49:09And all the requests that we made once we came in to the FBI and to the DOJ to investigate leads that could confirm or deny whether or not there was any linkage between anyone that Marchant and in particular the human source they used and Butler, Crooks or anyone in Butler, those were all denied. That wasn't looked into. And it's been publicly reported that the DHS inspector general, he's also been blocked from investigating a lot of the DHS activities that day on the ground in Butler. So ask you just final thought on this about the FBI. You know, many of us have read over the years. I will tell you what made me a lot more libertarian during the global war on terror was reading the indictments of a lot of these terrorists where I'm like, is this a terrorist or is this entrapment?

49:54And so what is your assessment of the FBI having been blocked or seen blocking to investigations? Like, do you trust these individuals to really carry out their duties, Kash Patel specifically? Look, I don't want to ruin any ongoing investigations. Again, the Palestinian trade, I really don't want to make a part of. But what I think is important is for us as Americans to exercise our God-given constitutional rights. This is a beautiful country. I took a note to support and defend the Constitution, fought for it. You have the right to question anyone in the U.S. government, and you should. Just look at the data from the last 20-plus years.

50:32Question every single aspect of the government, regardless of who is in power. Okay. All right. I do want to also ask you about Jeffrey Epstein. So you had, I'm sure you probably have been reading the news. You were inside the administration also at this time. You did have a very high level security clearance. Do you think that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset? Yeah, I do. That's my opinion. The NCTC, we never touched any of the Epstein stuff. That was all under DOJ lock and key. So I don't really have any insider knowledge beyond what I've read personally and same stuff you've read on the internet.

51:05But yeah, to some degree. Now, was he a freebooter, a privateer who occasionally would do contract work with different intelligence agencies? That's just my opinion. That's kind of the realm that he was in. But there's obviously something much darker there. There's something else that speaks to just the power dynamics in our world, I think, that's in those files. And I think we should – again, we should continue to question everything about those files, and we should demand that our government actually gives us transparency. I agree. Well, considering that, our colleagues over at Dropside News, they commissioned a poll.

51:38A lot of Americans believe that the war in Iran was to distract from the Epstein files. Do you think there's any credence to that idea? Yeah. That's an interesting theory. And I actually, but I would say, I would disagree just in the sense that the drumbeat for the war with Iran has been going on, I think, longer than most people knew what Epstein, who Epstein was. So, but I think it was probably a welcome distraction considering how much it was in the news. Because again, if you want people to rally around the flag, start a new war, that's kind of like politics 101, tragically. So I think that factor, but I don't think it was specifically for Epstein.

52:13Had the Epstein files never existed, there'd still be, unfortunately, a neoconservative Israeli lobby for a war with Iran. Yeah. Sticking, I think, a little bit with the Epstein question, that's another one. And look, I'm not saying I believe this, but I have seen a lot of people who do. They think, you talked there about Trump potentially being influenced by a threat to his safety. Another theory is about Epstein. His conduct around Epstein has been bizarre, if we're being honest. I can say that. You don't have to say it. Do you think there's any credence to that? I think if Trump was in the Epstein files, they would have used it to take him out long before he made out the nomination back in 2016.

52:50I just think that's even if you don't like Trump, I think that's just kind of obvious. But again, we go back to this is a this appears to be a very powerful network. And so for people who've been anywhere near it, are they intimidated by it? That's a potential. Yeah. And sticking with that, you know, given your assessment, you've now you've worked at the highest levels of the United States. intelligence community. You said you do think Epstein is an intelligence asset, not specifically for any one country. So given your experience within that, I would just want to be very, very clear. It would not be out of the question to have powerful networks like this, which are linked to United States intelligence, Israeli intelligence, Russian intelligence.

53:32Yes or no? Of course. Yeah. I mean, I think most Western governments would use several layers of cutouts and all the people who could be called to testify probably actually wouldn't know anything. And there'd be very limited files about it. It's just my professional opinion. Okay. See, and again, I think this is very important. It's been dismissed as a conspiracy theory. I think your opinion on this matter, considering your expertise here is really vital because you've actually seen some of this up close. And so, you know, I think people who have been dismissing this for quite a long time should really, really take that to heart whenever we're talking about the Epstein story, which, of course, the mainstream media, if they do want to talk about his intelligence connection, it's to Russia, never to anybody else.

54:16Last question here on Epstein and intelligence. Do you think Israeli spy operations continue on U.S. soil? Of course. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the Israelis run a good deal of espionage against us. I think most of it they don't have to necessarily spy in a traditional sense. I think they've done a very good job of moving a lot of money around Washington, D.C. via influence campaigns. And again, look, man, the Israelis are good. I mean, they have so many that are dual citizens. I think there's people that work on their behalf who don't even think they're really working on the Israelis' behalf.

54:48They just think they're doing the right thing. So I think the subtle influence and some of the, I think, folks who are just sympathetic. And they've been told for years that we kind of have the same objectives over and over again, carry a lot of water for them. But of course, Israel is a very, very aggressive and very competent intelligence service. And the Israelis pursue their national interests with a rigor that's actually pretty admirable. And I wish we could pursue our national interests for the same rigor they do theirs. Right. As much as I criticize them, if we just had that same spirit around our own interest, it would be amazing.

55:26As a veteran, as a member of the U.S. intelligence community, what did you think when the U.S. ambassador, Mike Huckabee, invited convicted spy Jonathan Pollard into the United States embassy in Jerusalem? It's despicable. It's despicable. And look, I think there also is a good chance that Tucker Carson and I will get looked at by the FBI with more scrutiny than Mike Huckabee will for that. Now, look, I don't know if Huckabee cleared that. I don't know what the gain was there. But, you know, Pollard was a spy against the United States of America. And whatever, a deal was cut and he got in, he ended up going back to Israel.

56:03But in my opinion, as an intelligence officer and a veteran and as an American, there's no reason why our ambassador, the president's representative in Israel should be meeting with them. What do you think of – so first of all, I mean, again, I'm trying to tap dance here. But for me, how do you do that and not get fired? I just don't get it. How do you do that and not get fired? You get defended by the White House, by the president. His most recent interview with Tucker Carlson, I mean, I'm curious for your view. I mean, maybe it is genuine considering his religious beliefs. How do you view that type of religiosity when it's paired with our actual United States government, our national interests?

56:45And what did it look like on the inside? Like, are there more Mike Huckabees than we know about who are working inside of this administration? I think with Mike Huckabee, it's genuine. I don't think he thinks he's being disloyal to America. I think he has a very strong, I don't know if I actually have the right, I look like he has the right religious doctrine. I think he's a Christian, Zionist Christian evangelical. And not all evangelical, I go to an evangelical church and it's not like that. But I think he strongly believes he is doing the right thing, which to me means like he probably shouldn't be the ambassador to Israel.

57:16Like he could probably be the ambassador kind of like anywhere else, but maybe not Israel. So that's a major issue. But look, the fact that no one removed him, that does speak to the power that the Israeli lobby has on our government. And the fact that like you have to resign from the government and come out like I am and say this. You really can't say it from within the government and be taken seriously or even listened to. that just shows you how powerful these guys are. And it's not like they're around every corner threatening people or paying people off, but there is enough of a power dynamic there.

57:49I mean, Adelson was at the dinner last night at the White House and she gave over$100 million to the president. Like, look, these people are powerful. That's just the way politics is. And at the end of the day, again, just like our relationship with Israel on the battlefield, I think we have to look at what our relationship is with Israel here in Washington, D.C. and in terms of foreign lobbying and say, is that good for the country? And I don't think it's healthy for us to have that relationship with any country. I completely agree. Joe, last couple of questions here. There was some speculation that you had resigned to make a splash so you could run for office in the future.

58:23Is that your plan? What are you looking at? I ran for Congress twice, and I'm not in Congress. So if that's my plan, it'd be pretty wild. No, I have no desire to run for office ever again. I hope to serve in the government, to serve our country in some capacity. Once again, if it doesn't end up working out, that's fine, too I got to fulfill my my childhood dream of being a green brain getting to go to war for my country So right now serving in this capacity is what i'm focused on um, again, like I have no desire to to run for office I know because I got a lot of views and stuff on twitter people like oh, you're gonna run in 2028 I I know the nuts and bolts of having to run for just congress So like I can't really even wrap my head around what uh having to do that at the presidential level would be so So, no, my goal is, it's really clear.

59:10It's to hopefully get through to the president, either myself or to have enough public pressure, that we change course here in the next couple weeks and we walk back from the abyss. Last question for an issue very near and dear to my heart. Did you ever see any evidence of extraterrestrial life while you were in government? I did not, no. I was mostly in the Middle East. I didn't. I've got some friends who were pretty involved in looking for those types of things. Okay. Can you share anything? Yeah, no, I heard a good deal. I think it's called the Skywatcher Project. There's a good deal online.

59:45I know one of the guys who was involved in that, not in like the ESP stuff, but in actually being able to signal them through signals. Very credible guy. And so what he found, what he's talked about, I think is worth taking a look at. But I was a terrorism guy, and so I didn't run across any aliens and terrorism. Well, you never know. There are several orbs. There are a lot of orbs that appeared in battlefields in Syria and Mosul. I'll send you a few links. No, 100%. I've seen the footage, 100%. I just never saw it. Okay. All right. Fair enough. Last question, then. Where can people support? What's your plan?

1:00:18Where can people support you if they want to? I think my ex-account is probably the best place to do it. All these different podcasts and stuff I'm going to be doing. There'll be clips and stuff on there. Excellent. But that's the only support. I would say if you share my views, call your senator, call your representative. of there's primaries and there's elections happening in 2026 and tell them that you don't support this war. Because unfortunately, some of the most active polling that's going on right now, it's getting put up on Fox News, on ABC, the mainstream media. And for lack of better terms, I think that either those polls are fake or they're polling just a bunch of baby boomers.

1:00:49And the people that are tuning into media like this, who actually got President Trump into office, I don't think they're reflected in that polling. So we've got to make our voices heard on social media and by contacting your representatives. All right. Well, Joe, thank you very, very much for your time. Again, yeah, we got you out on the time that we needed to. Thank you again for the heroism in your action. I have almost never seen it in my life. And I think it's commendable. The fact that you don't have any plans to run again for office speaks also volumes to the mission that you're trying to accomplish here.

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