U.S. Senate confirms Washington’s Joe Kent to lead national intelligence agency

The U.S. Senate confirmed Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer and two-time Republican candidate for Washington Congress, as the National Counterterrorism Center’s director on Wednesday.

Nearly six months after President Donald Trump nominated Kent to head the center, the vote was 52-44. Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, had Kent as a top adviser throughout his confirmation process.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, urged the nomination to be confirmed, saying he has devoted his career to combating terrorism and protecting Americans. Due to the terrible death of his first wife, Shannon, while serving in Syria in 2019, Joe views this mission as both patriotic and horribly personal.

Kent’s confirmation was contested by Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington.

Kent was deemed clearly unqualified by Murray.

Republicans would put it under the control of a conspiracy theorist who supports white nationalist ideas, she said, adding that it is somber, serious job that calls for composure and a dedication to putting the purpose before politics.

She stated that almost everything we know about Joe Kent disqualifies him from this position.

Kent will serve as the head of an organization created in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, with the mission of obtaining and evaluating intelligence in order to prevent terrorism. He will report to Gabbard and manage a workforce of about 1,000 employees.

Since being hired to work for the Trump administration earlier this year, he has experienced a few controversies before becoming the head.

He was among those discussing U.S. plans for a military strike in Yemen in a Signal group chat in March. The communication apparently involved the sharing of classified material. The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, made the Signal texts public after revealing that he had somehow been joined to the chat.

Two months later, The New York Times revealed emails in which Kent pressured senior intelligence analysts to add references critical of Biden-era immigration programs and to change an assessment of ties between the Venezuelan government and a criminal gang to better fit Trump administration policies.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Kent joined the U.S. Army at the age of 18. He was a Ranger and Special Forces veteran with 11 combat deployments. He graduated from Norwich University with a degree in defense analysis and strategic studies. He advised the Trump campaign on foreign issues in 2020.

A suicide bomber from the Islamic State group killed his wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologic technician, in northeastern Syria in 2019. Kent, who resides in Yacolt, was married again in 2023.

Three months after losing to Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in November of last year in the 3rd Congressional District in southwest Washington, Kent was nominated by Trump.

He lost against Gluesenkamp Perez, who was vying for the seat, for the second time. 2022 was the first year. Since she voted to impeach Trump in 2021, Kent, a staunch Trump supporter, defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary.

However, Kent was unable to retain the Republican seat that fall, falling to a little-known candidate named Gluesenkamp Perez by 2,629 votes in what was seen as one of the most significant upsets of that year’s elections.

Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Kent by 16,000 votes in their rematch last year.

— Washington State Standard’s Jerry Cornfield

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