Judging Freedom - 🔥🔥 MAX BLUMENTHAL 🔥🔥 : What Joe Kent Knows and Why He Dumped Trump

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

🔥🔥 MAX BLUMENTHAL 🔥🔥 : What Joe Kent Knows and Why He Dumped TrumpSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for

freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, March 19th, 2006, Max Blumenthal joins us now. Max, a pleasure, my dear friend, as always. We have a lot to discuss, in my view, a lot of significant events this week. The most significant domestic event was the resignation of senior counterterrorism official Joe Kent

and the reasons articulated by him in his resignation letter. Can you enlighten us on this? Joe Kent, I think it's the highest ranking U.S. official to have resigned over a war since Vietnam. And this war is shaping up into Trump's Vietnam, or at least his own personal Vietnam, to paraphrase Donald Trump referring to his exploits with women as a bachelor back in the 1970s and 80s. And so Joe Kent is seeing what the rest of us are seeing, but he had seen it from the inside. as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center,

operating essentially one echelon below the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a fellow U.S. veteran who brought him in. It's well known. Joe Kent has done 11 combat tours. He was a special forces operator, Green Beret, worked with the CIA, lost his wife, Shannon Kent, who was a CIA operative after the Syria withdrawal was sabotaged, by military leadership, why was the U.S. involved in Syria? Why was Syria happening? Well, Joe Kent, in his resignation, dared to point out that Syria was on the U.S.'s regime change target list because Israeli operatives put it there, along with Iraq and Iran

as part of the clean break document that was furnished to Benjamin Netanyahu by his advisors who went on to advise George W. Bush back in 19, In 1996, Joe Ken is stating the obvious truths that we all know about Israeli influence over U.S. government and about the Israeli influence that is just unprecedented over Donald Trump and about the disastrous course of the Iran war, which is destroying the global economy in which Israel continues to escalate to prevent Donald Trump from finding an off-ramp. And there's almost no way to challenge what Joe Kent said. said in his resignation letter on the merits, it was such a bold, truthful statement, but also

just unbelievably, unbelievably courageous to make these statements about Israel. And it shows how far gone the U.S. government is at this point, that someone of his stature with his background would do this. And so his opponents now, who are a combination of Trump deadenders and Israel lobbyists and Israelis themselves, are trying to muddy the waters by making this into an anti-Semitism scandal and painting him in the words of Amos Hochstein, who is the former Israeli turned Biden advisor, who helped steer Biden's policy in support of Israel's goal to destroy Lebanon. calling him a neo-Nazi. He's being attacked also by, you know, liberals, but also by Trump loyalists.

And he has just utterly shattered their entire narrative and opened up the debate that we really need to have as a nation right now. Should the United States be waging war for Israel and as the U.S. military carrying out a mission on behalf of American national security or on behalf of a psychotic. apartheid colony 6,000 miles away. And it's obviously the latter. So again, there's no way to attack Joe Kent on the merits. So they're trying to turn it into an anti-Semitism scandal. And the funniest part, which I'm sure get to, is they're trying to drag me in the gray zone into this. Well, just a moment before we get to them trying to drag you in, who attacked the South Pars gas field? The Israelis or the U.S. or both? Well, the Israelis can't do anything without the U.S.

I mean, who supplied the planes, who supplied the bombs, who supplied the fuel, the in-air refueling. But this was an Israeli objective. This is a gas field, first of all, unionized workers. It's a very important part of Iran's domestic industry and its economic powerhouse. It supplies gas domestically to the Iranian population, which means, you know, everything, the U.S., but especially the Israelis say that how they want to liberate Iranians from the evil mullahs is proven false by this attack. But more importantly, Iran had warned explicitly we will retaliate by attacking energy infrastructure around the region and we will reclaim escalation dominance

if you continue to attack our oil fields in our own infrastructure. And so that's what they did. They attacked a LNG facility in Qatar, whose production is now down 20% and will not be able to recover its normal production rate for three to five years. This is like a hammer blow to Europe and its ability to have an economy. It attacked Aramco, I believe Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia, set them ablaze. Saudi Arabia continues to provide space for attacks, not just U.S. attacks on Iran, but Israeli overflight. And so Iran has reclaimed escalation dominant. It is gas energy prices, gas and oil prices are going back up. And Donald Trump, in an attempt to calm the markets, lied on truth social and claimed that he had nothing to do with this attack on South Parsfield.

he's trying to wipe the scene clean of his fingerprints, and he's told the Israelis that they should not do it again, but if Iran retaliates, he'll blow everything up. So it completely contorted statement in which Trump is trying to basically calm down oil prices again because he's blown everything up. And this is the Israeli strategy. This is why the Israelis killed Ali Larjani,

who was essentially running the Iranian government. because he was negotiating behind the scenes with the Gulf states to provide Trump with an off-ramp. And the Israelis need to keep the U.S. in this war for as long as possible because the Israeli goal, it's not the same as the U.S. goal. We don't actually even know what the U.S. goal is, but the Israeli goal is to destroy Iran as a nation. And to do that, they need the U.S. military to be involved for as long as possible. And Iran is demonstrating that it can not only hit back, but it can reclaim escalation dominance, and that the entire narrative that we're hearing about the Iranian military from the Israelis,

which has infested our own media narrative, that their missile launching capacity has been wiped out, that their drone production is wiped out, is totally false. Pete Hagseth, the defense secretary or whatever he is, war secretary, claimed that Iran's air defenses had been flattened. And guess what happened today? For the first time in history, an F-35 was hit with a missile in Iranian. And the pilot only escaped because he was probably on the border region in Western Iran

and was able to get back. Otherwise, he probably would have been taken captive. So the U.S. doesn't even have control over Iranian skies. This caused all the other bombers that were on their way to Iran to basically pause and turn around after this pilot got hit. Wow. Why are they, let's go back to Joe Kent. Why is Glenn Beck and company attacking you?

or do you want me to run this clip first and then you can respond to it? We've got to run the clip. Chris? His current wife, multiple reports, identify her as Heather Kayser and say that she has contributed to something called the Greystone. This is an outlet, a media outlet founded by Max Blumenthal. Who's Max Blumenthal? What is this outlet?

Blumenthal wrote for something called Al-Aqbar. that is a pro-hesbullah pro-Assad outlet. Now, he resigned in 2012 over the Syria coverage, but he's also a contributor to Russian state media, R.T, and Al Jazeera, which is Qatari money. The gray zone, which he edits, has been criticized as anti-West, anti-Israel, pro-Russia, pro-Iran.

Also, he was platformed at an Alexander Dugan linked event. If you've listened to this show, I've been talking about Alexander Dugan and how dangerous this guy is since before the turn of the century. He is very, very dangerous. This event called the Forum of the Future 2050 was in Moscow in 2025, and that's where Blumenthal spoke on the same stage with Alexander Dugan. Now, I want you to know, crimes of the wife or not crimes of the husband. There's no crime with his wife, but it's a saying. I don't find any solid reporting that proves that she's an employee of Blumenthal, you know, in the formal sense. But she did write for the site. So I don't know any deeper than that.

I didn't know you owned a site known called the Greystone. Like, yeah, it still sounds elegant, you know. We sell luxury watches to men who want to look like Pierce Brosnan or something. All right. So the woman that he's referring to, I believe, is Joe Kent's current wife. Take it from there. Did you know that clown when you were at Fox News? Oh, God.

I knew him. I was the fill-in host for his show probably 50 times. I mean, he hasn't changed. You know, you get accustomed to these greeds where he goes down the rabbit hole and it's just building, he's building bridges of lies based off island. know, to connect islands of half-truths to deceptions. And in this case, almost everything he says about me is false. I mean, the funniest thing is he says I spoke on stage with Alexander Dugin in Moscow. And I never did. I didn't even agree to appear at any event in Moscow. And I think it's

like the forum of the future or something. Elon Musk's father was there, but I wasn't there. Anyway, it's all kind of made up. And they're trying to drag me into it because, Heather Kaiser, who went on to marry Joe Kent, contributed, co-authored a piece years ago, I think, back in 2023 for the gray zone that was about wasteful USAID spending in Ukraine. Honestly, it was kind of like a piece that aligned with the Trump campaign's messaging back in 2024, which no longer aligns. And that was it. So they're just trying to find some hooked.

And then by connecting that to the gray zone, we're sort of somehow connected to Qatar, Russia, Iran, the entire axis of evil, even though the gray zone is a completely independent site, independently funded with no connection to any of those governments. And this is all they have to attack Joe Kent with. It's funny. And I'm honestly kind of,

enjoying it. But what they're trying to do is not just muddy the waters. And they're, they're definitely trying to present a substitute for an argument about why Joe Kent was wrong and why the U.S. should be in this war for Israel because they have no arguments. But they're also attempting to get Joe Kent and Tucker Carlson jailed. And by they, I mean the Zionist movement that essentially controls Donald Trump. They've been pushing for some kind of espionage act investigation of Tucker Carlson since last week. Now they're floating.

Laura Lumer, the spiritually rotted anti-Palestinian Alice Cooper impersonator who has the ear of Trump is floating the idea that there's an FBI investigation of Joe Kent and somehow trying to rope me and my wife Anya Parham pill into it and calling Anya a radical Muslim, which is hilarious, they simply want everyone jailed who challenges this war.

That's the message they're trying to send it. It's because they're afraid of what's going on inside the U.S. military and inside the administration, where there is a lot of dissent against this failing, disastrous, catastrophic war. Joe Ken is speaking for many people in the U.S. military at every level, all the way from the brass on down.

And he's speaking for many people in the administration. And so what they're trying to do is make an example of him to intimidate them. And they're saying, we're not just going to go after you. We're going to go after your wife and all of your wife's associates. And in this way, we'll destroy your career. We'll make sure you'll never work again. you won't get a think tank job. Ultimately, and mark my words, when this is all over,

it's going to be Donald Trump and those who stand with Donald Trump, who go down with the ship, who go down with the USS Gerald Ford, which is now in dock because sailors apparently set fire to the laundry room to get out of their deployment. They're going to go down with the ship. J.D. Vance is going to go down with the ship. Tulsi Gabbard's going to go down with the ship. And Joe Kent will be seen by Americans as a patriotic hero who stood up for what was right.

And we'll have a political future in this country, just as Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massey do. Well, let me ask you about another odd event. Has the IDF threatened elimination for Russian leaders? on the basis of their speech if they wish the Netanyahu government ill? It looks like they have, and I'll get to that in a second. I wanted to kind of make another point that I left out, which is that I had nothing to do with Joe Kent's resignation. I didn't even, I mean, I got the news just like everybody else did, but and we're being, the gray zones being involved in some bonkers conspiracy.

theory by, you know, washed up former Fox boomer slot merchants like Glenn Beck. And it's ridiculous. But we are influential. And so is Judge Napolitano. And so are so many emerging podcasts and independent outlets. And they are shaping the way that people in power think. I just, and I do want to take some measure of credit for helping to shift the discussion in this country because this country is changing and people are waking up to

what time it is right now. And they're realizing that the U.S. military is becoming a tool of a crazy apartheid colony six million miles away and its assets inside the United States who control the president. And this is why I hosted John Mearsheimer last week about his book, The Israel Lobby, on its 20th anniversary of the publication of his famous essay with Stephen Walt, the London Review of Books. It's being vindicated right now. It's going mainstream.

Even Republicans under age 40 who don't watch Fox News are seeing this. So, you know, I think we're going to see more of more disruption at the top because people, important people, Judge, they're watching you. and you're shaping the way they think, and it aligns with what they're seeing, including many of them who are on the inside. So Joe Kent's not the only one, and they can't make an example of him. And there will be more. Trust me, there will be more. To your question about...

Let me just respond to what you said. There are many of us who are fighting this battle, but none more personally courageous than you. You are the gold standard in this battle for exposing what is going on. And it's a pleasure to work with you. I know we're going to be taking slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We're ready for it. Well, I mean, look at Colonel Wilkerson. This was, you know, Colin Powell's chief of staff.

Right. Now, what he says is about what's about to happen in the Iran war is absolutely true. And he knows this from experience. I haven't been inside the room like him. Yes. But, you know, these are the figures that you're giving voice to day after day. and people on the inside are learning the lessons from these season figures, and they are being led into disaster.

So if you're watching this right now and you're on the inside or you're inside the military, Donald Trump is being led by some very dark forces that do not represent American national security interests, and he's being led into a disaster that will be remembered in the same breath, as Vietnam and the Iraq war, possibly worse. So make the decision that's right for you and listen to your conscience like Joe Kent did. Because Joe Kent will be remembered as a patriot and a hero, and everyone who stood with Donald Trump will be recognized as a scofflaw, a villain, and a disgrace.

And that's too bad for someone like Tulsi Gabbard, who built her career on. on being a dissenter and had one of the most disgraceful testimonies in Congress I've ever seen. Listen, I could play it. We've been playing it all day. There's no sense even watching again. She's an utter, utter disgrace. And to those people to whom you are speaking, not only be as courageous as Joe Kent, be as eloquent if you can, be clear in your articulation, just like Joe was. Now to this IDF threat of Russia. What is this all about? There's this woman, Anna Uklova.

I think she's of Ukrainian extraction, who is in a spokeswoman for the Israeli military. They have a Russian language division, and I think she works there. And she was asked by RBC, which is a Russian broadcaster, about whether Israel had access to Russian CCTV. and traffic cameras because it was revealed in Russia that Russian CCTV cameras were using something called BriefCam, which is an Israeli video analysis software company that has taken credit for Israel's ability to monitor Saeed Ali Khamenei, the former Ayatollah in order to assassinate him. And so the Russian authorities were getting worried.

Do the Israelis have access to our CCTV? Are they just watching us? And she made some very disturbing comments in response to this. She said, I want to get it right. She said, she said, Hamini's elimination shows our capabilities are serious and that no one who wishes us harm will be left aside. And then she added,

I hope Moscow does not wish ill to Israel right now. I'd like to believe that, kind of threatening Russian leadership, if they continue to or if they ostensibly support Iran. So essentially an Israeli official is threatening assassination of Russian leadership. That's how I read it. And Alexander Dugan, a prominent Russian, read it the same way, prompting Okolova to actually issue a statement saying,

I never said those things, fake news, please check facts. But she never explained how it was fake news. I mean, this is reported in RBC. So I hope Moscow is paying attention here. The Israelis, this is a mad dog off the chain. And I wouldn't be surprised if they threaten Chinese leadership next. Their only objective is to destroy Iran. And they are now threatening Russian leadership.

I would not be shocked if they soon threatened to deploy a nuclear weapon inside Iran. Iran, if they fail to suppress Iranian ballistic missile launches and drones, which they are failing to do. And Iran continues to demonstrate that it can hit Tel Aviv. It's worn down their interceptors. What did Israel do in 1973? Goldemeyer said, she told the BBC, I would use a nuclear weapon if we felt like our backs were against the wall. They may have actually taken U.S. diplomats to an airfield in the airfield in the military. southern Israel and showed them a plane strapped with nuclear weapons heading to Egypt if

Kissinger and Nixon did not authorize rearmament of Israel. That's a story that's frequently told. So this is an extremely dangerous moment in which the most dangerous country in the world is escalating to a point of no return. And that's why we decided to publish this piece at the Gray Zone by Wyatt Reed. Everyone can check out. Here's another example of that escalation. Israel targeting R.T. Russia today correspondent Steve Sweeney in Lebanon. Further rocket attacks were reported against Naharia and admit it. Ficking.

Where where, where, where? All right. The latest report is he's in hospital. He's well. He's injured. but they're not life-threatening injuries, the same for his cameraman. So you got two war crimes there, at least, targeting a civilian area and targeting journalists. Yeah. Steve Sweeney's a friend of mine.

He's one of the hardest working, bravest war correspondents out there, veteran war correspondent, reporter, also someone who's very close to the anti-war movement. And he is explicitly stated that they were trying to silence us. They being the Israelis, that looks like he was directly targeted with a GBU made in the United States. This is Israel, the same country that is responsible for the majority of journalists in the world killed last year, the overwhelming majority, that has killed hundreds of journalists in the past three years. and they have targeted Steve Sweeney for his reporting. He's on the front lines in southern Lebanon, while most Western outlets are afraid to send reporters there.

And what is he showing? The mass ethnic cleansing of the southern Lebanese population. Israel has told them all to leave everywhere north of the Latani River and to never come back. This is a titanic war crime that Steve Sweeney is documenting, and they attempted to kill him for. it. Thank God he's alive. Shrapnel has been extracted from his arm and I'm told he's back out in the field. I would think that British media would want to cover this story and to demonstrate how Israel targets

journalists because we haven't had such a vivid illustration before. But instead they're whitewashing it. They're downplaying it. The BBC has a article that says, headlined, missile lands near reporter. Who fired the missile? I don't know. It could have been anybody. It could have been, maybe it was a Lebanese missile. It just landed next to him. Maybe it got lost on the way to a birthright Israel trip. Like, where was the missile aimed? The missile landed meters away from Steve Sweeney. So I think this is footage that should be leading primetime news. it's something that would also, you know, I think audiences would want to see it. It's sort of shocking footage. And it's pretty much nowhere. Wow. The Daily Mail has a piece about it. That's like the best I've seen. Yeah, we'll do our best to get it out there. Max, you are the bravest and the clearest. Well, I'm not as brave as Steve. Like, I'm not out there like that. Right. Right. I know Steve as well. And he is a very, very courageous and dogged. reporter. Thank you, Max. Thanks for all of your great reporting. Thanks for accommodating my schedule.

Thanks for all the topics we covered today. Be well, my dear friend. We'll see you next week. Thanks a lot, Judge. Thank you. Wow, what a day. What a series of events. Tomorrow, Friday, the end of the day, the end of the week, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Larry Johnson, Ray McGovern, the Intelligence Community Roundtable. Judge Lepal Tano for judging freedom.