00:00President Trump has had enough of U.S. allies backing away from supporting the war with Iran.
00:05I think NATO's making a very foolish mistake. And I've long said that, you know, I wonder whether or
00:11not NATO would ever be there for us. So this is a, this was a great test because we don't
00:17need
00:17them, but they should have been there. That rather tempered public response
00:21stands in contrast to an earlier post from the president where he stated in all caps,
00:26we do not need the help of anyone, as well as a readout from Senator Lindsey Graham,
00:32who spoke with Trump directly about the issue. Graham posted to X and said of the president,
00:37quote, I have never heard him so angry in my life. I share that anger given what's at stake.
00:42With allies refusing support and the key Strait of Hormuz remaining closed,
00:47the last thing the president needed was a defection from within. But that is exactly what he got.
00:52I am talking about the director of the National Counterterrorism Center,
00:56Joe Kent, who stepped down from his post yesterday. He took to X to explain, writing in part,
01:02quote, I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent
01:08threat to our nation. And it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and
01:13its powerful American lobby. The Post's chief Washington correspondent, Stephen Nelson,
01:17dug into the resignation and the political impact it's having.
01:20Kent is the highest profile resignation to date in protest of the Iran war.
01:27Kent is a notable figure in the anti-interventionist camp among President Trump supporters.
01:33He resigned with a lengthy letter saying that President Trump had been duped into the Iran war
01:40by Israel and certain unnamed media figures. His resignation has provoked divided opinion.
01:49People who are critical of him in the White House say that he has spouted a bunch of lies on
01:55his way out
01:56the door, where his supporters say that this was something that he struggled with and was a
02:03clearly difficult and principled decision. Now, this, of course, does political damage to President
02:09Trump, who thus far has been able to keep together his diverse coalition of supporters throughout this
02:15major conflict. President Trump has, of course, said that he expects the war only to last a moment
02:21of a matter of weeks. But oil prices are rising and the war continues. Vice President J.D. Vance,
02:28who sources say did, in fact, like he was fond of Kent. He said yesterday that he would encourage
02:36people who are like him, skeptical of foreign wars, to trust in President Trump and know that he is,
02:42in Vance's words, smarter than his predecessors and will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
02:47In other Iran news, who's leading that country right now? Iranian state media has confirmed that the
02:53country's de facto leader, Ali Larajani, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday.
02:59Larajani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, is believed to have stepped into
03:04the leadership vacuum after the death of the Supreme Leader during the initial wave of Operation
03:09Epic Fury. So with him dead, who's in charge now? The real answer seems to be the religious regime,
03:16one expert told us. Iran likely has had a successor lined up for quite some time that will simply do
03:21whatever the regime says. That might be Ali Larajani's brother, Sadiq. He's seen as a hardliner
03:28that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would work well with. He's also currently the head of a
03:33council that directly advises the Supreme Leader, which of course brings us back to Ayatollah
03:38Moustaba Khamenei. As you know, he's the new Supreme Leader, at least by title. But questions continue to
03:45swirl around his health and how much practical power he has. Remember, the one statement he's made
03:50since being elevated into his father's position was read by Iranian state television, and the world
03:56has yet to hear or see the man for himself. One more dark horse candidate is the Speaker of Iran's
04:02Parliament. He was the commander of the Iranian Air Force and is repeatedly seen on state TV leading
04:08death to America and death to Israel chants. Experts tell us whoever ends up leading Iran's
04:15government is not likely to be a moderate. The House Oversight Committee has officially subpoenaed
04:21Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the possible, quote, mismanagement of her
04:26department's probe into sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi's handling of the Epstein files has
04:31been criticized by a handful of lawmakers on both sides, and the committee has asked the AG to appear
04:36on April 14th. A letter accompanying the subpoena from Chairman James Comer reads in part, quote,
04:42As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the department's collection,
04:47review, and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency
04:52Act, and the committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts.
04:57Five Republicans, including well-known firebrands Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South
05:02Carolina, joined with 19 Democrats to compel Bondi's testimony. The Justice Department has so far
05:08released more than three million pages of the Epstein files since Congress passed a bill
05:12demanding they do so back in November. If you looked through them at all, you would have seen,
05:17no doubt, a ton of redactions. Sometimes entire pages were blacked out, and critics have blasted
05:24Bondi as a result. Several lawmakers have accused the feds of withholding information to protect the
05:29rich and powerful and not the victims, as the DOJ had claimed. And in less than a month,
05:35Bondi will have to face those accusations head on.
05:38For more on these stories and everything else you could possibly want to know,
05:42check out the New York Post in print or online. And don't forget, like and subscribe to the New
05:46York Postcast wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. I promise, you'll be glad you did.
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