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Lawmakers will get to grill President Donald Trump’s top intelligence and spying officials on the Iran war publicly for the first time, just a day after the nation’s top counterterrorism official resigned in protest over the conflict.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency chief Lt. Gen. William Hartman and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. James Adams are all set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.
The hearing comes after Joe Kent, Trump’s pick to lead the National Counterterrorism Center under Gabbard, suddenly exited the job on Tuesday.
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“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent said on X. “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.”
While Venezuela and Cuba could be points of discussion, Iran will likely be a major topic during the annual Worldwide Threats hearing, given that Senate Democrats have clamored for public hearings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the ongoing war.
Gabbard, who built her political career bucking war with Iran and the U.S. getting involved in regime change, will likely be grilled over Kent’s resignation from his post.
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Following his announcement, Gabbard said that her job as DNI chief is to help “coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions.”
“After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion,” Gabbard said on X.
The hearing will be led by Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who is the top-ranking Democrat on the panel.
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Both have been at odds in their view of the war — Cotton fervently backs Trump’s decision, while Warner argued that Iran posed no “imminent threat” to the U.S.
“So the decision to put our service members in harm’s way and bases around the region in harm’s way was entirely based upon the president’s decision, not an imminent threat to America,” Warner told CNN earlier this month.
Cotton speculated that the conflict would end in a matter of weeks, and reaffirmed that position when pressed.
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“I’ve said that, based on my conversations with the President and my understanding of Iran’s military capabilities, I would expect it to take weeks, not days, and we’re only a couple weeks into it,” Cotton said.
“And again, every single day brings hundreds, if not 1000s, of strikes into Iran that steadily and methodically degrade their military, and the end state will be a country … without the offensive capabilities to continue to terrorize the United States, Israel, our Arab friends and the civilized world,” he continued.
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