CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Hits Trump With Video Receipt Gushing Over Ex-Honcho He Now Says Was Always ‘Weak’

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins dropped a before-and-after video receipt of President Donald Trump gushing about former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent, who resigned his Trump administration post in protest of the Iran war on Tuesday, prior to his resignation and trashing him post-resignation.

Kent quit his post in a scathing letter that refuted the rationale for the war, but was also shot through with anti-Israel sentiment.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. 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,” Kent wrote, echoing many of the MAGA personalities who have split with Trump on the war.

Kent was confirmed in July by a straight party-line vote, with every Democrat voting “no.”

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins punctuated her report on the resignation by highlighting “the way that the President spoke about Joe Kent previously and in the past before he appointed him to this role” and how he reacted after:

COLLINS: At the White House tonight, they’re dealing with the fallout from the first big Trump administration official to break ranks over this war with Iran.

Joe Kent, until this morning, was President Trump’s point person who was running the National Counterterrorism Center, and he has since resigned. He published his stinging resignation letter publicly, and wrote, I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. With Joe Kent adding, Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation. Now tonight, we’ve confirmed with sources that before sharing that letter publicly today, Joe Kent had actually sat down with the Vice President, JD Vance, and the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to share his concerns about the war that is now being waged in the Middle East. All three of the voices that you’re seeing here on your screen have previously been publicly critical of American military intervention overseas.

And Joe Kent is someone who is not only an Army Special Forces veteran and a former CIA officer. He also has a history of promoting conspiracy theories, and documented associations with white nationalists, that have been widely criticized and widely reported on.

President Trump, as you might imagine, did not respond well to the public way that Joe Kent resigned over what he is doing in Iran.

And listen to the way that the President spoke about Joe Kent previously and in the past before he appointed him to this role. And how he responded to his resignation today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He does fantastically on television. I watched his interviews. I love what he says. But he’s a strong guy, he’s a handsome guy. Said that guy was good looking at the whole package.

I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read his statement, I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said that Iran was not a threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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