Joe Kent on strategic collapse and America’s drift to war

It's the tip of the spare in the epic battle to defend the United States of America.

The National Security Hour exposes the wolves and sheep clothing and then a various plots

to undermine and destroy U.S. National Security.

Hello and welcome to the National Security Hour. Thank you for joining us on the mission.

The National Security Hour is the tip of the spear in the epic battle to defend the United States of

America. I'm Brandon Wichert, your friendly neighborhood host. You can catch me right here

every single Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern and you can follow me at We The Brandon on Twitter X.

Dr. Mike, why don't you introduce yourself? Yeah, my name is Mike Scheuer and I work at the

agency at CIA for 22 years and have written some books about some of bin Laden and militant Islam

and I aspire to be a historian but I'm pretty much a grandfather these days.

And I'm very honored. We are joined by my friend, a man who was kind enough two years ago to

give me a rather lovely blurr before my recent book, A Disaster of Our Own Making, How the West

Lost You Crate and then he got pulled in to the Trump administration and he is now recently

resigned from his post as the head of the National Counterterrorism Center. None other than Joe

Kent. It's nice to have you here, Joe.

Absolutely. And so we're going to open up with the big news and the big news is that

Joe Kent has resigned from the NCTC position and clearly this has now become kind of a political

hot potato. Joe, have you been surprised by some of the response from some of your former

colleagues or were you expecting some of this pushback that you're getting?

You know, I was expecting, yeah, I think that the pushback is about what I expected. I didn't take

it. My resignation would get as much traction as it did as much attention outside of like

national security circles. So that's a more surprising to me.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. Sebastian Gorka, I saw him yesterday at the Council on Foreign

Relations. He had claims that he left you a rather nasty voicemail. Is there any truth to that?

He wrote in his resignation letter, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it is clear

that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. In response,

you wrote on X quote, he was a man without honor and you disgrace. Just to be clear, was he wrong

about those allegations? Well, you could ask him because three months ago he said the exact

opposite of what he said in his disgraceful resignation letter. So either he was lying then or

he's lying now or most likely because he's not a principal. He's not a cabinet member. He is not

in those meetings where that exquisite intelligence is provided. He said Iran has to be dealt with.

The president is correct a scant few weeks ago. So what changed Joe? What do you think?

Personally speaking, I stand by what I said. He's an utter disgrace.

Well, I'll tell you the voicemail I left him yesterday. You are utter disgrace to the uniform you

once wore, to the republic for which it stands. The fact that you used the name of your late wife

is a political casual against the elected president Kamarim Chief is utterly inexcusable.

He did indeed. I mean, I wouldn't say it's nasty. Look at Gorka. He's kind of playing a part here.

I got actually got along just fine. I got along just fine with seven. We worked together. But now like,

you know, he's doing his thing. Yeah. And covering his own butt, which is the main occupation in life.

Yes, exactly. And I should clarify for the audience because he is the senior director

at the National Security Council for counterterrorism. You guys worked pretty closely together.

We did. We had just a fine working relationship. I mean, I was a lot of people like on the internet

who wouldn't have an opinion about Gorka. He's fine to work with. Yeah. But I kind of figured he'd

kind of come out like this. All right. Okay. Okay. So you've left the administration. You're doing

this whirlwind media tour. It was the reason that you ultimately left. Is it because you feared

where things were going with the Iran War? Was this sort of just one of many steps you were taking

to leave? I say it's too full. I mean, number one, I don't believe, and I think I can prove this,

that we got into this war because Iran posed an image threat to us. I think the Israelis forced

our hand members of the senior members of the administration, Secretary of State and President,

and he didn't basically set this themselves. And as a matter of conscience, I think that's wrong

to have a foreign country tell us when and how we go to war. But also, you know, just being a veteran

myself and that Gold Star Husband, a promise I made to myself many years ago was if I ever had

the ability to attempt to stop us from getting into a needless war, I do everything I could,

even if it meant like resigning. And we can get into this more. But the way that this decision

to take us to war and this last iteration was made, I don't think there was any other way for me

to actually have my voice heard within the administration. So my hope is truly to reach President

Trump and he doesn't have to, you know, acknowledge me or anything, but it is to make him think that

maybe now is a good time to seek other advice and to change course because things are

heading in a catastrophic direction. Now, when you say catastrophic direction, and I,

obviously I think you're aware of where I stand on this. What exactly do you mean? Do you mean a

strategic defeat of the United States military? Do you mean nuclear weapons exchange? What do you

mean by catastrophic outcome? I think we're seeing a catastrophic preview. I guess now you could put

it in terms of what's happening on the global market, which I think both you are very familiar with.

Yeah. In terms of energy production, our goals, the GCC partners, I think are in a very,

very bad place and do it to take them quite a while to recover. So that economic impact is

already massive, but then in terms of like the power and the prestige of the US military and

the ability for us to continue to be the security guarantors of the region, I think is probably

shattered for a long time. It's not for the very foreseeable future. And I'm also very, very

concerned of losing more American lives over there. The potential of ground troops like you're

hearing on the Sunday shows today, this crazy idea of basically making a bunch of Marines,

the hostage above and by putting them on this crack island. But also because Iran is so big,

and we've set the bar at some kind of a total surrender, as crazy as nuclear weapons sound,

the more you play out this equation, I do fear that these rallies would be tempted to use

a nuclear weapon. Yeah, I actually am with you on that. And I think actually the idea of

former IDF guy that I was speaking with recently, the claim is that IDF believes the US invasion

will fail. Yet their government is still pressing Trump to do this. And it could very well

end with an Israeli nuclear attack because they think that we're not going to succeed when

all said and done. Why is this happening, Joe? Why are we in this position? Because three

weeks ago, things were going okay. Yeah, you know, essentially at the very beginning of the Trump

administration, there was a push for military action inside of Iran. This time last year,

issues when it kind of started in my, from my vantage point, impression Trump rightfully said,

no, I want to try and negotiate. And the issue that I think the Iran hawks and the Israeli lobby

was that Trump was probably very well-postered, in my opinion, to get a nuclear deal. Because

President Trump's red line, as he stated, it was that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

The Ayatollah, the former Ayatollah, before he was killed, he had a prohibition, a fauna,

on actually making a nuclear weapon, which means they could get the negotiating table.

I think in the first Trump administration, the killing of Kossum Solmani, the maximum pressure

sanctions showed that President Trump was very pragmatic, very tough. You had to deal with him,

but that he was reasonable. And so, if your goal is to get regime change in Iran, you have to

short-circuit this process. You can't have Trump in the Ayatollah agreeing at a starting point

for negotiations. So, in a very, very slick and concerted way, from my vantage point, I saw

senior level leaders from the Israeli side come in and say zero enrichment, zero enrichment

over and over again, the Iranians can have any enrichment capability. And then we were talking

point laundered by all the pro-Israel talking heads, Mark Levin, FDD, Washington Post, New

York Post, etc. about how enrichment basically equals the nuclear bomb, which it doesn't.

And so then they said it enough that it started making its way into official U.S. talking points

that the American policy is no enrichment, which just wasn't the case whatsoever.

And that kind of got us to midnight hammer. And right before midnight hammer kicked off,

a lot of us said very, you know, just from experience, we said, hey, even if we do midnight hammer,

and it's completely successful, the Israelis are going to come back to us in six months and demand

support for the regime change. And that's what happened. This is like my big issue is that we let

the Israelis thrive because the timeline, we let the Israelis blow up the negotiations.

So that's kind of how we got to this point where we are right now. And the Israelis basically

back us to a corner because even the second round of negotiations, I think was going to be

more challenging post midnight hammer, but it was making some progress. And again, the Israelis just

basically said, no, we're going to do it. And then the Iranians will attack you. And here we are.

So the Israelis, it sounds like are all over our intelligence collection process, our vetting

process. Dr. Mike, do you have any any question on related to the obvious intelligence manipulation

and or intelligence failures for Mr. Kent? I think there are both failures that are apparent.

But the greatest failure is in language. The only immediate threat to the United States is those

units, those paramilitaries who were sent into the country over the last four or five years

and have not been cleaned up yet, little maybe not even identified yet. That's the immediate threat.

You know, every day the American wakes up at dawn and goes to bed at 10 or 12. He is under an

immediate threat from the Soviet Union and China. But we have a relationship with them that

allows us to be somewhat secure that they're not going to jump off the board for the sake of jumping

off. And when you talk about an immediate threat from Iran, it is nowhere in the in the

construction of man, the equivalent to the threat that we face day in and day out from China and

so the Russia, I'm sorry, I'm a very old man. It's the way they fool people with that is just

a typical government. There is no possible reason to think that the Iranians were an immediate threat

to the United States. They're not suicidal. But Mr. Flint said is that the Israelis are at the

base of all of our problems in the Middle East. There was a movie about World War II called They

Were Expendable and it fits the Israelis perfectly. There nothing but a continuing flat tire on

the American car. And as long as they're there, we're going to be, as Mr. Flint said, controlled by

foreign enemies and let there be no mistake. They are an enemy of everything that the United

States stands for. Whether it's the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, independence,

a foreign policy that is concerned with America first, it's a disastrous situation for the United

States and for whatever reason Trump seems not to bind to being the play toy of a person, a

destitute person like Nanyahu. So I have no doubt that what Mr. Flint is saying is accurate

and it's about time someone in the government in more recent years has begun to say what goes on

here, why are 525 American congressmen and senators being paid by the Israelis?

It should not take a big brain to understand that that's not in the interest of the United States.

And Joe, just so the audience understands, I mean because something that Gorka and a lot

of the people from the administration who are attacking you or criticizing your recent resignation,

they're saying that well Mr. Kent didn't have the same level of intelligence access that

the president has. What is the level of access that you had as NCTC director? Because I would assume

it's fairly high. Yeah, I mean there's always some special access program or something like that,

you know, select people are read into, but anything pertaining to CT at the top levels I was read

into. So an imminent attack, I'm pretty sure that I would have known of or at least known the broad

themes of, and look, I'm pretty well versed in the Iranian target set from my previous life,

and this takes up a lot of our bandwidth that NCTC is the Iranian threat.

And look, there was no, there was no, there was no imminent threat coming from Iran,

and look, especially this Trump administration, we have a lot of data that's publicly available.

We have a really good idea of what the Iranian escalation ladder looks like under Biden,

Iran's proxies had attacked our troops and killed three of them at tower 22, but there was

over I think close to 200 attacks after October 7th by the proxies against American forces in

Iraq and Syria and Jordan. Once Trump came in back into office, those, those attacks stopped.

There was a moratorium on attacking Americans. The National Security Hour on America outloud

talk radio network on iHeartRadio is where you come to hear military and intel experts,

America out loud talk radio plays on the iHeartRadio network. You can also listen on our media player

from any web browser anywhere in the world. We have the best in class apps available on Apple

Android and Alexa where we stream 24 seven and now you can also hear them on the podcast on those

same apps. Be sure to make America out loud.News America out loud.News America out loud.News

your daily stop for the latest news and happenings. You can find out more about my show and get all

the latest news and podcasts. If you go to the menu navbar at America out loud.News under our show

or schedule and you will be in the know. We're back in two minutes. Don't you dare touch that

dial. This is Dr. Peter McCullough. You know me from America out loud pulse and the McCullough

report while I'm inviting you to join me in Nashville July 2nd 3rd and 4th for a truly

historic experience in 2026. America out loud news 250 slash 10 Nashville. I'm calling all

patrons to be a part of this unforgettable weekend packed with inspiring entertainment,

incredible fireworks and nationally recognized speakers who proudly stand for freedom.

Together with you and our partners clear and the wellness company will celebrate two major

milestones 250 years of America and 10 years of America out loud news led by Malcolm out loud.

I can't wait to see you there because your presence matters and you are family. So make history

with me and Malcolm register now at america out loud.News forward slash Nashville that's america

out loud.News forward slash Nashville we'll see you there. Feeling run down, foggy or constantly

drained? Your body might be lacking the support it needs at the cellular level. Recharge from

the wellness company is a doctor formulated supplement designed to restore your energy,

focus and immune function. It features the first ever combination of methylene blue and

uralithin A. Clinically studied ingredients to support mitochondrial health, boost cellular

repair and enhance cognitive performance. With added NAD3 COQ10 and PQQ, recharge is a daily

solution for deep lasting energy, not just a temporary boost. Visit twc.health forward slash

out loud and use code out loud for 20% off your first order. Power up your body and mind with

recharge. Aural hygiene hasn't changed in 50 years, but our diet and the way we eat has,

creating an environment in your mouth for bacteria to wreck havoc on your teeth and gums.

For better oral health, get spry dental defense and oral care line designed to combat acid

creating bacteria. The toothpaste, mouthwashments and gum all contain xylitol and natural

ingredients shown to dramatically improve oral health. Spry can be found online and at all

find natural retailers. I'm Doug Evans, author of the Sprout Book. I want to share something

that's powerful. You can grow your own food right on your kitchen countertop. Sprouting is an

ancient method that turns ordinary seeds into living vegetables in just three to five days.

No soil, no sunshine, no fertilizer. Just seeds, water, for under a dollar, a serving, you can

grow nutrient dense packed greens anywhere. City apartments, dorm rooms, off the grid cabins.

In a time when food prices are rising, Sprouting gives you control, abundance and peace of mind.

Join the self-reliance revolution. Go to thesproutingcompany.com,

slash out loud and use the code out loud for an exclusive offer.

Thank you for listening today and thank you for joining us on the mission. The National Security

Hour is the tip of the spear and the epic battle to defend the United States of America.

I'm Brandon Wiker. You're the cipherer of truth in an age of lies. You can catch me right here.

Every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern and you can follow me at We The Brandon on Twitter,

National Security Hour. This is the Monday edition. I'm filling in for Colonel Mike. He's been

taken out by Virginia's hay fever. It's that time of year. Another gift of the Yankees.

Another gift of the Yankees. That's right.

But as you can hear, Dr. Mike is still firmly with us, writing strong as we explore what's going

on in the Middle East with really one of the one of the foremost experts. I would argue of

military affairs in the Middle East and in counterterrorism. None other than the recently

former National Counterterrorism Center director, Joe Kent.

And then we went and got to negotiate any table and then we watched again when the 12-day war

kicked off. The the Iranians were pretty deliberate at not hitting our bases and not hitting

Americans because they understood it with the Israelis. After midnight hammer, the Iranians

watched an equal number of missiles that we dropped bombs at like an empty corner of one of

our bases on Qatar that they knew that we had evacuated and said, okay, we'd like to get back

to negotiating table now. So we we have a lot of data to understand exactly how Iran will escalate.

So I completely reject the idea that there was there was any kind of imminent attack and you know

this isn't controversial because Marco Rubio came out right away and said like we had to attack

because the Israelis are going to attack. So the only end of the attack was the Israeli attack.

I can't take it. Okay, Joe is just explaining to us why he doubted and I think he's right,

why he doubted the the intelligence that was that that fell from the sky two weeks ago saying that

the the Iranians were imminently going to strike us with whatever wonder weapons we think they've

built in the in the in the mountains over there. Joe now that you now that you've you've come out

and you've said this, what do you think is likely going to happen are are you of the mind that

the US really will attack Carg Island because 5,000 Marines or less doesn't sound like it's

going to be much of a success for us. Do you think that this is just the president sort of posturing

here or do you really think he's going to try to do this? I mean, I pray and I hope and I hope

that we can influence him from the outside. This is kind of like why I went on Tucker and I'm going

on as many many shows as I can. I hope and I pray that he's not going to do that that he's just

having them there as a contingency to to show strength, etc. So I hope that he's not listening to

I hope he stops listening to the people that got us to this point because I believe President

Trump is still a very smart man is he sees the way things are going right now especially the

impact that's having here on the homeland in terms of economics the effect of the casualties.

He should he should seek other counsel at this time and that's that's my hope because wherever

right now is telling him that he should deploy forces to Carg Island and I saw again I saw a

bunch of senators and some congressmen talking about it today on the Sunday shows he needs to

kick them out of the Oval Office and talk to some dissenting voices right now to get other options

and I've said this on Tucker and I said it again last night before he does anything if he wants

to get out of this his first first task is to restrain the Israelis because if you don't

restrain the Israelis everything else is going to fail. Why do you think the Israelis are so gungho

right now about doing this? I mean what do you what is going on and in that part of the world

that is prompting them is there any real security reason for this or is this just all political

internal Israeli machinations? Well I'm the expert on the dynamics of what's taking place but

obviously B.D. was in political hot water to sit in there at least prior to October 7th and so

the continuation of the conflict you know in theory I would in general I think wars are good

for most sitting presidents so that seems to be a theory B.D. is going with but I do think even

you know based on just talking to uh prominent Israelis either in or out of the government

they viewed I spent the lecude leaning once they viewed this time as like their golden opportunity

to take down the the Iatola of the Iranian threat once and for all they've already gotten rid

of Assad they've basically decapitated Hezbollah so getting out right now going after what they

consider to be the head of the snake is in their is in their national interest they think with

Trump in office this is a limited window because I think they understand here domestically in America

that this might be the last truly kind of yes we're like about a term baby boomer generation

that's just blindly pro-Israel that they're they're going to get and the Israelis to me

we're always very straightforward when we would deal with them they would never they unless they

were trying to influence this they wouldn't talk about enrichment nuclear etc they would talk

about we need to take down the Iatola and do it now and we don't really care if it's long

and protracted in bloody wow well bloody bloody for us you know definitely for me yeah yeah yeah

so Dr. Mike do you have anything you want to you want to just add one thing that I think

what I hinted what a year ago when I worked for the agency I was astounded by the most senior

officers knowing virtually nothing about the Middle East and not caring John Brennan wasn't

genius enough but I I would doubt that a senior American political leader president

senator ever read a single word that Osama bin Laden said and yet

within those documents is what we're seeing unfold today but these people are smart they're good

analysts and they know how far they can push and and are surprised constantly by the fact that we

don't listen to them you know there is an extraordinary stupidity when we talk about Iran as if

they're all crazy people and we don't maybe we don't disagree with them but their operations

are based on what they believe their national security interests are and we can't we we regard that

as you know mindless terrorism or juvenile kind of behavior in reality they fight with what they

have when they can and it just we walking down this road and even though we've gone out we've

had two or three wars in the last six months yeah last year rather we seem not to have

realized that the Iranians and probably many other Islamist countries Islamic countries

are not no longer the Arabs who Peter O'Toole rallied against the Germans

that they may have studied a little bit about physics about armature arms and other kinds of

modern things you know this whole business looks to me like this is a shaker for the US intelligence

community in the sense of the you know very impressive ability of the Iranians to use a variety

of homemade missiles to really last a hell lot of what's trying to hurt them and Joe do you

think that our side has been genuinely taken aback by the level of ferocity and effectiveness

of the Iranian well first of all let me just ask you do you think in your professional opinion

the Iranians have been effective encountering us and if you do do you think that our side was not

well prepared for that I think they've been I think there's two worlds that exist there's one

that consistently reads the intelligence and studies it and then there there was a unfortunately

a small group of senior decision-makers who isolated themselves from any dissenting voices

and listen to the Israelis and listen to the logic that wasn't backed up by any intelligence

that said hey a month ago there was a bunch of Iranian protesters out there and that means the

regime is really really weak and if you just come and you make some really really big bold strikes

these same people who are in the streets protesting are then going to I guess overthrow their

their government and all of our strategic goals are going to be very very easy to accomplish

this whole thing will be done in I don't know four weeks or so yeah but there was no intelligence

I didn't read any intelligence that reflected that when we were having robust debates as we

were supposed to do at the deputies level and at the national security council level in the lead

up to the 12th day war in midnight hammer we we widely agreed that any kind of strikes against

the regime would result in a rally around the flag effect which actually if our goal was to take

down the regime would empower the hardliners which is what we've seen I mean the obviously

supreme leader accommodate son I believe is even more hardline than his father and we're also

empowering members of the IRGC who are basically saying like the moderates got us in this mess don't

all these guys were saying we could sit down with the Americans they got duke twice they're a bunch

of suckers and the IRGC like the most of us know these are hardcore guys when they fought in the

Iraq Iran war they fought us very effectively in our own Iraq war hezbollah etc so unfortunately

the sea our our senior level policymakers they didn't listen to the actual intelligence they

listened to what the Israelis were telling them through unofficial channels and then they

listened to the Israeli surrogates on the media and they created their own echo chamber and that's

again how we got to this point and it is in your in your resignation letter just so the in case the

audience hasn't heard it you do have a comment in there that I I really thought was excellent

when you you this was you say this was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to

draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men

and women we cannot make this mistake again so you you fought in Iraq you spent both your entire

adult life basically fighting these these global wars on terror in Iraq Afghanistan and elsewhere

um do you believe that the Iraq war like this one was the byproduct of some Israeli

information operation targeting the US government in 2002 and 2003

yeah absolutely I think the public record really supports that I mean again it was it it was a

young Benjamin Netanyahu who had previously been the prime minister I think he was somewhere else

in the government at the time but he came here and he lobbied and he's a very convincing salesman

he came and he said basically you know Saddam's on the cuss again the WMD didn't have catastrophic

effects on on America I think they even held longer the the idea that Saddam was linked out kind of

and then you you also had the entire Israeli like media pro-Israeli media apparatus here in America

FD again and a few other think tanks doing the same thing with with the media so obviously they

partnered with the Neocons they partnered with the military industrial complex so they they weren't

the sole actor driving that train but they had a big influence and the Israelis do a very effective

job I think not not just of the media game but they do have an impressive intelligence service

that can that can carry out very impressive I would say like tactical operations that you know

assassinations deep behind enemy lines and that really intrigues a lot of people so then when

these really come and say hey I have a secret tell you guys don't know this yet and then they

they kind of get then they then they give you their talking points like a lot of people who

aren't well versed in intelligence will say oh wow this has got to be good it's come from the

Israelis so that's that's what appeared to happen you know with relief to Iraq war and in this war

Dr. Mike you were an early critic of the Iraq war how dangerous is it for the country to have

political leaders who basically take in unverified claims as fact from foreign sources I can't

imagine I can't think of another time another country that we do that for other than Israel

can you think of any other instant yeah I can't think of one but you know it's it's true enough

with the Iranians with the arrays Israelis it's a combination of the tremendously effective

third column or fifth column fourth whatever column it is they've created in the United States

from from Protestants to to some weird Catholics to all of the Congress I mean how do you do that

you do that you know by misinterpret it misinterpreting the Bible by paying off people

by threatening people by doing what they did apparently to Charlie Kirk I mean we're in the grip

of of as evil in our own terms as in as evil as an organization that there exists in the world

and we we cow-tow to it and that the whole the whole business of of America being involved

in Iraq or Afghanistan earlier and the quality of our generals in terms of leadership

is is abysmal we can't go aboard abroad to fight a war if we have clowns like the the fellow that

they they keep now going I think he's been sick on uh uh mr. Flint um he lost he lost in

Afghanistan he lost in in Iraq they made him CIA director and then he they found out that he's

playing around with a woman and they got rid of him you talking about Ratcliffe no no it's the

general guy oh yeah Patrace yeah clone of clowns yeah in uniform yeah and it's really astounding

how Americans American citizens put up with it maybe they don't realize it maybe they don't want

a real admit it but we're under the clock the the paw of foreigners more often than not in our

decisions for war and and Joe Joe are you because again I'm seeing all the pushback from people

that we mutually know people that I would think knew you before you resigned and we're probably

very friendly with you um are is there any concern among with you know that you have about

you know possible unfair treatment that they might try to you know come at you legally or has

there been any indication other than just sort of these these you know if I tuperations from

people like Gorka or do you think there might be a campaign now coordinated against you for

for daring to question the status quo I'm sure there will be some I've always seen what's been

leaked on the media so like the accusations that I I am a leaker that have been leaked by the FBI

to the mainstream media that's what I've seen but most of that coincided with me going on major

platforms like Tucker show yeah so I viewed that more as like a counter media narrative um I'm

confident that like I follow all the procedures and I didn't you know I know I didn't leak and so

I'm sure they're looking through all my stuff right now to see if they've got me obviously my

intent is up because because of what happened to a good man like General Flynn yeah and so many

others too so it's it's a concern but man I'm like we can't let these people intimidate us anymore

no that's why I just tried that's why I just tried to be as clear as I could in my resignation letter

and speak the truth now and you know I think right now with the with social media I think it it helps

because it does give people who are willing to stand up it gives us a platform and kind of the

ability to make it public and it makes that it makes it a little bit harder for them to come

after it's not impossible but the National Security Hour on America out loud talk radio network

on iHeartRadio is where you come to hear military and intel experts like me America out loud talk

radio plays on the iHeartRadio network you can also listen on our media player from any web browser

anywhere in the world we have the best in-class apps available on Apple Android and Alexa where we

stream 24-7 and now you can also hear them on the podcast on those same apps be sure to make

America out loud.News America out loud.News America out loud.News your daily stop for the latest news

and happenings you can find out more about my show and get all the latest news and podcasts if

you have go to the menu navbar at America out loud.News under our show or schedule and you will be in

the know don't you dare touch that dial in just two minutes per day you can reclaim your health

and vitality and cut your grocery bill in half with one simple convenient product. Our doctor

formulated green 85 juice formula's powerful dose of ultra concentrated essential nutrients

stops hunger in its tracks and supplies your cells with what's missing in the grocery store food

it's packed with wheatgrass, korella, dandelion, moringa, spirulina, broccoli sprouts,

acai berry beetroot probiotics enzymes vitamins adk b12 just to name a few go to chemicalfreebody.com

forward slash out loud today get nature super multivitamin green 85 empower your immune system cut

down on your grocery bill and save 20% on your first order are you looking for a healthy snacks

but you've had enough of all the sweet sugary energy bars good news there's new bars to try

that savory crunchy impact with goodness bear bars are based just on six simple natural ingredients

a certified organic veggie nut and seed bar that's low temp dried never baked or fried

bear bars are plant-based gluten-free and loaded with nutrients and protein head over to bearbar.com

slash out loud and get the exclusive discount just for america out loud listeners that's B-E-A-R

B-A-R dot com forward slash out loud thank you for listening today and thank you for joining us

on the mission the national security hours the tip of the spear and the epic battle to defend

the United States of America i'm Brandon wikert your host of action you can catch me right here

every Wednesday night at eight p.m. Eastern and you can follow me at we the Brandon on twitter x

we begin our final second hold uh i was chatting with with your your wife over direct messages and i

said uh you know just always have a lawyer on standby because i'm sure some of these guys are

going to defame you at some point and there that's a that's a you know that's something you can

use to defend yourself um because a lot of the stuff i'm hearing borders on defamation i'm not

an attorney but i've been around enough to know i'm very surprised with how how some of these

attacks on you are sounding um i would also ask you do you think there is because i'm seeing

Rahim Kassam is now tweeting that he's hearing from his sources in the white house that trump is

talking about doing negotiations to end the war beginning at the end of this month so in about

a week um do you think it's even possible at this point given all that's gone on to get some kind

of negotiated settlement uh with the Islamic Republic of Iran or they're just going to keep piling on

now i'm optimistic i think we still can the the more time that goes on the harder that's going to

get but again the fundamental factor if if if President Trump is serious about that he has to

restrain the Israelis and i think the only way to actually truly restrain the Israelis it's not

just telling them you have to go to the Israelis you have to say we are taking away

features of your defense your military aid so that all you can do is defend yourself and and we

will defend you too if you are attacked however you will not we will take away enough aid that you

can't go on the offense all of our negotiations will fail regardless of how skilled the diplomats are

how good the deal is unless Israel is restrained that's fundamental to the equation

i i think that's probably correct and i will just say it looks like contrary to what western media

sources are reporting whether or not reporting it i i'm seeing on foreign sources it looks like

Israel is getting pummeled right now so there might be some wiggle room now diplomatically

hopefully because they're so weakened they might not have a choice but to listen to us finally

rather than trying to dictate to us we're going to take a our final commercial break i am

Brandon wikard i'm the Wednesday night host of the national security hour you can also check me

out on national security talk on rumble and i am co-hosting the monday show with none other than

the great dr mic we will be right back with jokent for our final segment don't touch that dial

okay and then dr mic is this one also 18 minutes yes sir all right all right this is great i

wish we had video but this is great this is great all right i'm going to count us down five four

three two and one we are back for our final segment with jokent uh who's a friend of mine and

he's he's filling us in about what's going on with the middle east iran the political fall out

from his i think quite honorable resignation letter um something that i do want to ask him about

it's sort of really in his bayley wick as the former national counterterrorism center director

we keep hearing from the administration joe um that the there is a wave of terrorism that could soon

be hitting the uh you know the fruited planes of america conducted by iranian proxies do you think

that that that is a real threat at this moment or do you think that like the the pre war intelligence

might be overhyped well i think because of the open borders the past four years we frankly don't

know who's in our country i testified publicly um that we had identified eighteen thousand known

suspected terrorists who had access to america and the more we dug through the data we can't

we kept coming up with these different data sets the conclusion i came to was like we we just

don't know which is what makes us incredibly vulnerable but i think the biggest threat comes from

people being inspired to conduct terrorist attacks not necessarily like a cell of clandestine

terrorist infiltrating the america like we saw pre-9-11 um because like in general with cells they

have to communicate and i think right now knock on wood we're we're pretty proficient at breaking

themselves up when they do that but we're not very good at because it's it's almost impossible

is the loan actors that are inspired to conduct attacks that we've already seen several attacks

since the operations kicked off in iran and they all appear to be basically loan actors minus one

who's got some tangential ties i think back home to um individuals who are associated with with

hezbollah but our assessment going into the war was that the the loan actors and then also like

anti-Iran just like the way the the Gaza conflict grew legs of its own and inspiring people that

that was the biggest threat so really the blowback terrorism or the inspirational terrorism

yeah i mean i talked with i think someone you know uh sam fattas uh about a week or two ago

and uh you know he reminded me that the largest iranian consulate in the world is in

mexico city and as he said it's not because of all the she-ites living in mexico city so um

so uh yeah yeah go ahead

all right i'm gonna be sarcastic so you know what well known uh birthplace of one of the mom's right

that's right that's right so dr mike do you have any comment on the potential

uh has go ahead no i was just gonna say uh Brandon that the one thing

that it doesn't get talked about very much of course is how the enemy is thinking and what they're

doing and it seems to me that the iranians and much of the muslim world must be thinking this is

that this is the one time we are close to solving this this sickness this uh absent that's tied

to the body of the muslim world in the israelis why would they give up now

i i i don't know the answer to that but i don't know the israeli mind very well or the iranian

mind very well but i think that they've all been whether it's shia or suni they've been around the

block enough times to realize that if they don't at some point eliminate this this uh death threat to

their their faith to their countries to their control of their countries that it's just going to

happen over and over again they've never come this close and i don't know how their minds work

but i wonder if they're not thinking my god we should have never got this close to what's going

on at the moment and maybe we should finish it yeah yeah i i i am concerned about the home front but

i i also worry that this is a ripe moment for a false flag um joe do you have any thoughts on that

i don't i haven't seen the indications of that but you know i mean yeah war war is chaotic and

crazy so yeah i have to discount anything so okay so we're let me ask you this joe uh do you think

this is the beginnings or that we are already in potentially a third world war or do you still

think this is a regional war that we could contain and and end without this thing escalating into

something like 1914 she's very much like we're in the middle of a regional war the early phases of

world war three i mean the the biggest benefactors so far has been china they're still getting

a good flow of oil they're settling the transactions in you want as opposed to petrodollar attacking

the stability of the dollar russia um i think what we're having to either unsanction or just look

the other way yeah uh a lot of their oil that we had sanctioned during the that the Ukraine conflict

right so in theory if we care about great power competition this was again much like the

Ukraine war one of the biggest blunders that that we could make and i know the Israelis are seeking

to like remake the middle east but i think at the end of this however it is at least the gcc

countries they're going to be very skeptical number one of our our our ability to actually

provide them with security but number two again and this is catastrophic i think for the entire

for our entire nation the the security and stability of the dollar as the prime reserve currency

holder um and and the petrodollar so even if we'd say that we don't really need middle east

general oil because we're going to drill baby drill here our system is still built on this this

money printing in a large part of that there's your currency hold and the petrodollar and so like

again if you wanted to destroy that this was a great course of action for it so i'm very concerned

about all that it is a little confusing as to why we would have done this given all of the second

and third order effects and i think i think you might be right that maybe they just weren't thinking

about them i mean what did you hear any talk from people in the administration about you know if

we do this there's going to be second and third order effects or was this all just supposed to be

wrapped up within 96 hours so going into the 12-day war that entire period we had really robust

discussions before midnight hammer really robust discussions um heated discussions and i thought

they were healthy and they're productive even though i didn't necessarily agree that we needed

to do midnight hammer i thought we could have restrained the 12-day war from happening

i i felt like it was a process where like all courses of action were discussed

um in this last iteration i i didn't i didn't see that and i know the white house will say well

that's because we kicked you out of the room and it was you know only to people with whatever

whatever clearance we're in like anyway um but i still would have at least heard of the meetings

it's still like the the deputy committee process the in the state process it just didn't happen

and i i think had they had a a bigger audience or at least brought in some some other voices as

opposed to the hawks um all of this would have been discussed because i i don't think anything

that we're saying here is uh you know obviously not exquisite intelligence and it i don't think it

takes it genius to figure out i agree i know it takes it genius to figure out these days is why an

american president or secretary of state doesn't ask himself or ask his uh associates his his

minions what is in this for the united states and then for example does it really matter to the

united states if israel exists or not is it like it's it's like you crane look you know what in

the world are we doing in new crane and what's our interest there i guess it's uh what do they

call it a drennicrome and uh yes i guess that's what it is i mean it seems to me that that the

simplest thing is for the president to sit with his advisor should say why in the world do we

want to spend blood and money and and whether it's Ukraine or or or israel or anybody else

you know you could say we have our two greatest allies and they won't go away Atlantic and Pacific

and it has amazed me since since i went to work at the agency and it still amazes me now i don't

know i don't understand it and they always say i was choir you don't understand that the

complicated nature of world affairs and when i hear the word complication all i can all i can hear

is we're going and we don't know what's going to happen but we're going

well and joe actually because you you were one of the leading voices for the you know america first

ideology within the administration you and vp vans and and tallcy gabbert the the the director

of national intelligence were sort of the three most prominent america firsters other than president

trump uh in the administration what what what what what was the input level of your colleagues

like the vice president or dni gabbert on the sort of run up to this this in this attack on

iran two weeks ago what did did they have sizable influence or were they sort of kind of ignored push to

side i mean the pictures that that were released publicly on the night of the first night of the war

where you had a small group all the way down in mara lago and then you had the rest of the the

national security apparatus up in the situation room that honestly tells a pretty accurate

yeah uh and that that was basically my my take two from the inside so i don't even have to give you any

any kind of inside baseball when they publish those pictures i said you know what pictures work

thousand words that's it right there that's how this war was planned unfortunately yeah and it

looked like and i say this as a supporter of the vice presidents it looked like the vice president

was put at the kitty table that's what it looked like to me and it was very upsetting to me

uh to see that um personally so i can only imagine how you and and told you must have felt being

on the inside watching that happen i believe the president was was told that hey this is a really

going to last like i don't know maybe two weeks but we're going to knock down the air defense is

really quick when we drop and dumb bombs on them and hey what it's fine again without kind of getting

that that more um contradictory or like hey sir this could go really bad and then in which case

here's what will happen um again i i just didn't see a process like that playing out and uh

speaking of mark levin uh you are joe i believe set to go on tomorrow uh monday night with uh with

mark levin is that still on that's right yes where is it now or tomorrow night at eight man

man mark have a chat for the hour i believe serve in the whole hour should be a good time

my my envy that opportunity joe

i couldn't he dropped me i couldn't turn it down no it's it's it's it'd be a lovely thing to do

it's going to be great television i i can tell you that much regardless of you know

and what what goes on it's uh i'm really looking forward to it but i i hope you are prepared

he he is going to be frothing at the mouth probably literally uh joe so uh you know

haha just offer him a senator just offer him a say yeah well thank you for listening today

and thank you for joining us on the mission the national security hour is the tip of the

spear and the epic battle to defend the united states of america i'm your america always first

host Brandon wankert you can catch me right here every Wednesday night at eight p.m.

Eastern on the iheart radio network you can also follow me on twitter x at we the Brandon

be sure to purchase my books at amazon or any of your favorite bookstores and if you like

this conversation you can go to net sec talk n-a-t-s-e-c-t-a-l-k on rumble saw follow and subscribe

to my rumble show there where you will find the unedited full hour and 35 minute interview with

this guest no holds barred and you'll also find some other exclusive content that you won't hear

on the radio show here so give it a follow give it a subscribe check it out when you can

until then thank you for listening and god bless america