McCaul: Joe Kent resignation represents ‘ideological split’ within GOP

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) attributed a top intelligence official’s decision to step down this week to a divide within the Republican Party over the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran. 

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a former top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, urged President Trump to cease these military operations in a Tuesday resignation letter posted on social media. 

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote in his Tuesday 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.” 

McCaul, the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas that Kent’s statement represents an “ideological split” in the GOP over the administration’s ongoing military operation in the Middle East.

The Texas Republican called Kent’s resignation “deeply disappointing” and expressed his disagreement with the intel official’s assessment of the conflict. 

“I think Iran has been an imminent threat since 1979, and we do know that currently they were rebuilding their nuclear capabilities,” McCaul told Vargas. “They do have enough enriched uranium to deliver a dirty bomb to Israel with their ballistic missiles and other countries in the region.”

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 after stalled nuclear deal negotiations. While Trump has suggested that Tehran has been “decimated” militarily and economically, the Pentagon has not ruled out a ground operation in the future.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week indicated that these potential ground operations are unpopular among Americans on both sides of the aisle.. A total of 74 percent of the poll’s respondents opposed boots on the ground in Iran, including 95 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and 52 percent of Republicans. 

Several leaders of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base have criticized the administration for these strikes. 

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.), who was previously a close ally of Trump before resigning from Congress in January, accused the president of violating his campaign promise to not start any more foreign wars. 

“It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last,” Greene wrote on social platform X, shortly after the U.S. strikes on Iran. “But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more.”

Seven U.S. service members have died from Iranian counterstrikes on military bases in the Middle East since the launch of strikes on Feb. 28. 

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