Levka#propaganda #CharlieKirk #ConspiracyTheories
"Why ugly questions about Charlie Kirk's murder won't go away...
It was not surprising to see Joe Kent settling into a chair in Tucker Carlson's podcast studio in the woods of rural Maine just one day after he resigned from the Trump administration in a blaze of publicity.
Kent, 45, dramatically quit as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Tuesday, becoming the first senior Trump official to decamp over the Iran war. He alleged in his public resignation letter that the President launched Operation Epic Fury 'due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.'
Indeed, that's right up Tucker's alley.
But what was surprising, to some, is what Kent – a former Green Beret and CIA paramilitary officer – had to say about his alleged final conversation with Charlie Kirk and the circumstances of the conservative activist's assassination.
'The last time I saw [Kirk] on this earth was in June in the West Wing, in the stairway,' Kent claimed. 'I said hi to him, and he looked me in the eye and he said very loudly... and it's a tight space... and he said ''Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran.' Very loudly. And he walked off, I believe into the Oval (office)...'
As Kent recounted the story, he did not wink or nudge Carlson, but he might as well have.
'One of President Trump's closest advisors was vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis,' Kent continued. 'And then he's suddenly publicly assassinated and we're not allowed to ask any questions about that? It's a data point. A data point we need to look into.'
That certainly piqued Carlson's interest. Before long, they were deep into discussing conspiracy theories regarding Israel and whether unseen hands could have had something to do with Kirk's death.
(. . .)
First commercialized by podcaster Candace Owens – who has floated theories that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the First Lady of France and even Kirk's widow, Erika, were involved in the murder – wild conjecture has become a sort of morbid parlor game on the right-wing fringe.
Kent, it appears, is establishing his bone fides.
Though, as with many conspiracy theories, his brave pronouncements were not voiced outright but advanced with vague references, allusions and accompanied by caveats.
'We don't know what happened with Charlie Kirk,' Kent told Carlson. 'By no means am I saying the Israelis did this or any of that. But I'm saying there's a lot of unanswered questions...'
Kent went on to say that the National Counterterrorism Center, an office of the Director of National Intelligence which he headed until his resignation on Tuesday, had been 'stopped from continuing to investigate' Kirk's death by the FBI. But there were things too 'sensitive' to discuss publicly, according to Kent.
'We've been told that this individual, (Tyler) Robinson was a lone gunman, and maybe he is,' said the former intelligence official. 'But there was still a lot for us to look into that I can't really get into...'
Of course he can't, but speculative minds on X will come to their own vicious conclusions."