The last time I saw Charlie Kirk on this Earth was in June, in the West Wing. He looked me in the eye and he said: "Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran."

And then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that? The investigation that I was a part of [with] the National Counterterrorism Center, we were stopped from continuing to investigate. But there was still a lot for us to look into that I can’t really get into.

We know, because of the text messages that have been made public, that Charlie was under a lot of pressure from a lot of pro-Israel donors.

We know Charlie was advocating to President Trump against this war with Iran.

Who is in charge of our policy in the Middle East?

Who is in charge of when we decide to go to war or not?

In this case, the Israelis drove the decision to take this action, which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate.

Tucker Carlson: Was Iran on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon?

Joe Kent: No, they weren't. They weren't in June either.

The Iranians have had a religious ruling, a fatwa, against actually developing a nuclear weapon since 2004. That's been in place since 2004.

That's available in the public sphere, but then also we had no intelligence to indicate that that fatwa was being disobeyed or it was on the cusp of being lifted.

The Iranians are obviously aware of what's taking place in their region.

Their strategy was to not completely abandon their nuclear program because they saw what happened to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya when he said, 'Hey, I've got no more nukes, I'll do what you say, I'll give up my nukes'.

I think Israel would be able to defend itself. I think it could conduct limited strikes on its borders.

I think it could continue carrying out pretty impressive targeted assassinations against its adversaries.

What it couldn't do is go topple entire governments. It couldn't do something like the Iran War, the Iraq War.

It couldn't aggressively destabilize Syria. These big heavy lifts of regime change that America has been engaged in, Israel could not do on their own.

Which is why you get back to the Israeli lobby being just so potent and so powerful and so aggressive.

We're only three weeks into this war of choice, imposed on both Iranians and Americans.

This $200b is the tip of the iceberg. Ordinary Americans can thank Benjamin Netanyahu and his lackeys in Congress for the trillion-dollar "Israel First tax" that's about to hit U.S. economy.

Jeffrey Epstein in the 80s as a business person — he was bigger than life.

I think most of us actually thought that he had built his wealth and his prowess over his international relations with Israel.

President Trump has calculated through every permutation and every degree of strategy.

Ali Larijani was a negotiator who was eager to get us a deal.

U.S. forces are destroying Iranian naval targets that threaten international shipping in and near the Strait of Hormuz.

The idea that somehow Trump got hoodwinked by the Jews is — like, enough already.

If you know anything about President Trump, nothing could be further from the truth.

And you’re just giving life to the idea that’s been around for like 2,000 years with the Jewish people. Enough!

If you do not see this as an imminent threat, then you’re blind for your hatred of Trump.

There are people on the left and people in my own party that are more afraid of Trump being successful than the Ayatollah having a nuclear weapon.

That’s sick. That is sick.

To those who have lost their lives and been injured, you died in the service of your country, making the world safer, and that’s what military people sign up for.

And to those who’ve been injured, you’ve been hurt trying to stop something that matters.

This is not a foolish endeavor. This is something that had to be done because they were going to break out if we didn't stop them.

The worst thing you can do to a military unit is ask them to sacrifice and not finish the job.

You want to help the military? Let them finish the job they believe in that is necessary.

And you get nothing for finishing second in a war with mad people, crazy people.