Joe Kent is no stranger to service and sacrifice. He served in our armed forces. He was deployed on 11 combat tours. He is a Gold Star husband. His wife, Shannon, who served in the US Navy, was killed in Syria fighting ISIS in January 2019. Kent wrote about how Donald Trump comforted him in his time of immense grief at Dover. After the death of his wife, Kent moved back home to the Pacific Northwest with his two young sons and resigned from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler decided to vote for Trump's second impeachment and allowed Antifa to run wild in the district, Kent decided to run against her in Washington's third congressional district.
On Wednesday, Triggered spoke with the former special forces and intelligence services veteran, who is an unapologetic "America first" Republican. He's for tax cuts, ending the COVID lockdowns, confronting the Chinese threat, stopping our endless wars, pro-police, and ensuring we have election integrity. And he speaks at length on each topic. Ask him and you'll get a genuine response, not some swamp-soaked DC speak we so often hear.
It's a lengthy interview, which is featured below, but as we leave Afghanistan, we wanted to know his take on the matter. We left Bagram Air Force base in the middle of the night. There is concern that this could become another haven for radical Islamic terrorism. Mr. Kent was not bothered. He supports our withdrawal, as do many who have seen this conflict devolve into a total quagmire. That doesn't mean we stop killing these terrorists, but we don't need to complement that with nation-building. That aspect of the neo-conservative project has been swept away. Kent aptly noted that much of this effort has helped our enemies, especially in Iraq. The government we prop up is now run by Iran. Obama started the troop withdrawal under his presidency, then we had to go back in and stop the Iraqi government from collapsing under ISIS attacks.
Recommended
In all, we simply don't have the time, patience, or the materials to do so en masse. The Taliban has retaken some 80 percent of the country as of today, but Biden insists the national government won't collapse…until August 31 when the US's withdrawal is complete.
On term limits, Kent made a good argument for why they should be in place. First, he noted that one's political career isn't over under these rules. This is America; you can run for some other office in your community. Second, it would force national committees to reach out and find new candidates to fill the bench and add depth. The detachment that so many people feel from both parties could be traced that so many seats are shoo-ins that make voter outreach less of a priority. This causes things to atrophy.
I get the argument that who are we to say when a politician should go, especially when the voters of their respective districts elect and re-elect them over and over, but forcing the DC folks to have to come out of the beltway for candidate recruitment efforts will certainly keep things fresh in an otherwise stale city.
He's also seen the effect of the lawlessness and pro-crime agenda Democrats have peddled over the past couple of years with the defund the police movement, which he says has its roots in critical race theory. In Washington Three, whatever happens in Portland, impacts where he lives. The district sits along the border of the city. With cops hamstrung, Antifa marched freely, especially in Vancouver, which is right across the Hood River. Ms. Beutler said nothing.
I could see after these two betrayals how one would saddle up and offer voters another choice going into the 2022 midterms. Kent has put up a significant chunk of his own money in this effort. You can check him out here. I hope you do.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member