Joe Kent, the two-time Republican candidate to represent Washington’s Third Congressional District, was reportedly part of a recent high-level U.S. government group chat in which a journalist was inadvertently added amid a discussion about military plans.
The Atlantic published an article Sunday, March 24, revealing that the publication’s editor-in-chief, Jeffery Goldberg, had been added to a group chat on the civilian texting platform Signal with 18 high-ranking government officials, including accounts that appeared to belong to Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Atlantic released more of the messages on Wednesday, March 26, providing information about the chats and alleging that Hegseth had sent vital information about strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis group in Yemen earlier this month on the civilian messaging platform.
The Houthis are a rebel group that has controlled parts of Yemen since a civil war began in 2014 and has been listed as a terrorist organization by former presidents, including President Donald Trump.
In the messages, Kent appears to be added to the group as a point of contact by the recently confirmed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The messages show a back and forth between Vance and others in which Vance advocates for delaying the strike on the Houthis.
The initial reporting from The Atlantic showcased just one message from an account with the name Joe Kent responding to Vance and seemingly showing approval for delaying the planned strikes.
“There is nothing time sensitive driving the time line. We’ll have the exact same options in a month.”
According to a report by The Seattle Times, Kent added that Israel would launch its own strikes and ask the U.S. "to replenish whatever they use against the Houthis." Instead, Hegseth argued for swift attacks noting that there were "immediate risks on waiting" including "this leaks, and we look indecisive,” according to the report by the Times.
U.S. forces went through with the strikes the following day.
Kent's inclusion specifically has raised questions as he has yet to be confirmed to his appointed position as the new director of the National Counter Terrorism Center in the Trump Administration. His nomination was made in the Senate on Feb. 11 and forwarded to the Select Committee on Intelligence.
The Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, and the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, requested an inquiry into the apparent breach Wednesday, March 26, in a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense.
A growing group of Democrats is calling for Hegseth and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz to be fired or resign.
The group chat has sparked widespread controversy and also became a main topic of Gabbard's confirmation hearing as Director of National Intelligence earlier this week. It's likely the topic will also be brought up when Kent appears in the Senate for his own confirmation hearing.
Kent first rose to prominence in 2022 when he sought to represent Washington’s Third Congressional District and gathered more votes than incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary election, sending him to the general election against Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Herrera Beutler was one of the few House Republicans to vote in favor of impeaching Trump after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots.
Kent lost to Gluesenkamp Perez in the 2022 general election by less than 3,000 votes. He ran for the same seat again in 2024, this time losing out to incumbent Gluesenkamp Perez by around 16,000 votes.
Kent was endorsed by Trump in each of his pursuits for Congress.
Kent grew up in Oregon and enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18. He served in 11 combat deployments. His wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologist, was killed in a terrorist bombing in Syria in 2019.
