19.03.2026 - 13:30 [ CNN ]

Takeaways from former Trump administration counterterrorism chief Joe Kent’s extensive interview

“There was no intelligence that said, hey, on whatever day it was, March 1st, the Iranians are going to launch this big sneak attack, they’re going to do some kind of a 9/11, Pearl Harbor, etc. They’re going to attack one of our bases. There was none of that intelligence,” Kent said.

Trump and the the White House have repeatedly cited an imminent threat posed by Iran as an impetus for launching strikes against the country.

Kent further argued that the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who died last month in joint US and Israeli strikes, had been moderating the country’s nuclear program.