Joe Kent, who resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Tuesday, suggested in a subsequent interview with Tucker Carlson that Israelis may have been responsible for the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
This is the conspiracy theory that podcast host Candace Owens has been at the forefront of asserting since Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University in September. She does not believe that the man charged with the crime, Tyler Robinson, is solely responsible, despite text messages he sent to his self-proclaimed transgender lover, which were made public by Utah authorities, indicating that he shot Kirk because of the conservative leader’s views.
On her podcast and in posts on X, Owens has floated various conspiracy theories regarding Kirk’s assassination, including that it was an inside job by people within Turning Point USA, or the work of the Israeli Mossad, the French government, or even the U.S. military, according to the New York Post.
In his resignation letter as head of the Counterterrorism Center, Kent, a U.S. Army Special Forces combat veteran, said he was quitting because he did not believe Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States.
This view has also been a consistent Democratic talking point since the war began. Kent added that President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran was the result of “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
Trump told reporters earlier this month that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not drag him into war with Iran, and that if anything, it was the other way around.
Likewise, Netanyahu argued on Thursday, “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?”
“Does anyone really think that someone could tell President Trump what to do?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds to allegations that Israel dragged the United States into the war with Iran. pic.twitter.com/hWRo87tQE5
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 19, 2026
In a podcast episode published on Wednesday, Kent told Carlson, “Charlie Kirk was one of President Trump’s closest advisors, and he also advocated heavily against a war with Iran.”
“He was in the Oval Office in the lead-up to the 12-Day War. I wasn’t particularly close with Charlie. He was very gracious to me when I was running for Congress, very, very supportive, so we knew each other. And the last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this earth was in June in the West Wing in the stairway, and I said hi to him, and he looked me in the eye, and said very loudly… ‘Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran,’” Kent recalled.
He then contended that Israel knew that additional operations would be needed against Iran beyond last summer’s Midnight Hammer blow against the regime’s nuclear weapons program and implied Kirk was getting in the way with his reported opposition.
“So when one of President Trump’s closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly and publicly assassinated, and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point. It’s a data point that we need to look into,” Kent said.
The Army veteran further stated, “We’ve been told this individual, Robinson, is a lone gunman, and maybe he is, but the investigation that I was a part of, the National Counterterrorism Center was a part of, we were stopped from continuing to investigate.”
Carlson asked Kent why he believed that his team was told not to keep pursuing the investigation into possible foreign connections to Kirk’s assassination.
Kent responded that the Department of Justice and the FBI will say it’s because the case has been turned over to Utah authorities, who are prosecuting Robinson, but he felt more could have been done without interfering with the criminal case.
Conservative talk radio host Steve Deace confirmed in a Wednesday social media post that Kirk did have concerns about the U.S. getting into a war with Iran.
“On the night of Operation Midnight Hammer, Charlie also texted me how concerned he was about a spillover effect and his opposition to a regime change war in Iran. That is true,” Deace recounted.
He then went on to argue that it’s quite a leap from Kirk being opposed to a military operation against Iran to Israelis assassinating him in Utah.
“Charlie thought Islam was not compatible with Western Civilization. Yet no one is claiming he was really killed by Islamists. Charlie didn’t want open borders, yet no one is claiming he was really killed by the Cartels. Charlie really didn’t like RINOs like John Cornyn, but no one is claiming he was really killed by the establishment,” Deace wrote.
On the night of Operation Midnight Hammer, Charlie also texted me how concerned he was about a spillover effect and his opposition to a regime change war in Iran. That is true.
But here’s what is also true.
Charlie thought Islam was not compatible with Western Civilization.… https://t.co/JWIDOxdmyB
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) March 19, 2026
He concluded, “There were quite a few things Charlie was opposed to, and yet isn’t it odd and strange these imaginary dots are only connected where Israel is concerned. Odd and strange indeed. I’m sure that doesn’t reveal anything like true motivations whatsoever. Of course not. Just an odd and strange coincidence.”
Conservative influencer Karys Rhea recently explained on Israel-based journalist Brian Schrauger’s podcast that the latest round of blaming the Jews is part of an ongoing pattern in world history.
“Once you embrace conspiratorialism as a worldview, instead of keeping two feet on the ground,” she said, “you always get to anti-Semitism, because anti-Semitism has always been fundamentally a conspiracy theory.”
Rhea elaborated that it “assigns Jews undue power and influence and blames a secret cabal of global Jewry for all the world’s problems.”
Kent appears to have hopped on the anti-Semitic conspiracy bandwagon, which is not grounded in truth.
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