By STEPHEN GROVES, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s decide to guide the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart, Joe Kent, on Wednesday night as Republicans regarded previous his connections to right-wing extremists and help for conspiracy theories in regards to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
Kent received affirmation on a 52-44 vote tally with Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina the one Republican nay vote. Kent had already been working for Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. As the pinnacle of the Nationwide Counterterrorism Heart, he’ll oversee an company tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats.
Within the function, he plans to commit company assets to focusing on Latin American gangs and different prison teams tied to migration. He’s the newest Trump loyalist to win Senate affirmation to the higher echelons of U.S. nationwide safety management at a time when Trump is stretching his presidential wartime powers to perform his targets.
“President Trump is dedicated to figuring out these cartels and these violent gang members and ensuring that we find them and that we get them out of our nation,” Kent mentioned at his affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Intelligence Committee in April.
Kent enters the highest function on the counterterrorism middle after two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Washington state, in addition to a navy profession that noticed him deployed 11 instances as a Inexperienced Beret, adopted by work on the CIA. His first spouse, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 whereas combating the Islamic State group in Syria.
But Democrats strongly opposed his affirmation, pointing to his previous ties to far-right figures and conspiracy theories. Throughout his 2022 congressional marketing campaign, Kent paid Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right navy group the Proud Boys, for consulting work. He additionally labored carefully with Joey Gibson, the founding father of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer, and attracted help from quite a lot of far-right figures.
Throughout his Senate affirmation listening to, Kent additionally refused to distance himself from a conspiracy theory that federal agents had somehow instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, in addition to false claims that Trump won the 2020 election over President Joe Biden.
Democrats grilled him on his participation in a group chat on Signal that was utilized by Trump’s nationwide safety staff to discuss sensitive military plans.
Additionally they raised grave considerations over a current incident the place Kent, as Gabbard’s chief of workers, advised an intelligence analyst to revise an evaluation of the connection between the Venezuelan authorities and a transnational gang. The revisions supported Trump’s assertions that members of the gang might be eliminated underneath the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime provision.
Democrats mentioned it confirmed Kent can’t be trusted to deal with a few of the nation’s most vital and delicate intelligence.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the highest Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned any counterterrorism director “have to be trusted to inform the reality and to uphold the core ideas of the intelligence group: Objectivity, nonpartisanship and constancy to truth.”
“Sadly, Mr. Kent has proven repeatedly that he can’t meet the usual,” Warner added.
Nonetheless, Republicans have praised his counterterrorism {qualifications}, pointing to his navy and intelligence expertise.
Sen. Tom Cotton, the GOP chair of the intelligence committee, mentioned in a flooring speech that Kent “has devoted his profession to combating terrorism and protecting Individuals secure.”
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