A retired Green Beret running for Congress demanded accountability over the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and called for an "Afghan war commission" to "find out who was lying and when they were lying."
Joe Kent, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces chief warrant officer, served for over 20 years and completed 11 combat deployments. He's running as a Republican for a seat representing Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Kent, in an interview with Fox News, demanded accountability for the chaos in Afghanistan.
"It starts with Biden, and we have to work our way down," Kent told Fox News. "I think we need to have a full Afghan war commission and find out who was lying and when they were lying."
"If we don't fight for it, they will get away with this one, and that will lead to more and more of these," he continued. "And I don't just mean the military industrial complex, the intelligence community. I mean every level of our government."
Kent also expressed disdain for senior leadership across government institutions and questioned the motivations behind their decision-making.
"We have to come to the realization that the vast majority of our elites and of our institutions really are not working in our best interest whatsoever," he told Fox News. "Some of them outright despise us."
The former combat veteran who fought in the Iraq War specifically targeted leadership within the U.S. military.
"These commanders, these generals, have been lying for years because they want to keep these wars going," Kent said. "Wars are good for generals. This is how they make their rank."
"This is how they slide into their next gig within the D.C. beltway, in academia, in think tanks or even on the board of a defense contractor, just like Gen. [Lloyd] Austin," he said, referring to the secretary of defense.
Austin previously served as a four-star general in the Obama administration. After retiring as commander of the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, Austin joined the board of Raytheon Technologies, a military contractor.
Kent's wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, was killed on Jan. 16, 2019, while conducting special operations against ISIS in Syria. The former Green Beret-turned political candidate blamed her death, in part, on the military industrial complex and on war perpetuated by the desire for personal gain.
"President Trump attempted to get us out of pretty much every conflict," Kent told Fox News. "The apparatus of the Pentagon, the military industrial complex, the blob, whatever you want to call it, found ways to thwart President Trump."
"That’s how my wife got killed," Kent, a father of two, continued.
He also said the U.S.'s chaotic exit from Afghanistan showed that military leadership never intended to fully withdraw from the country even after Trump signed a deal to have U.S. troops out by May 2021.
"The military never planned on living up to the deal that Trump negotiated with the Taliban," Kent told Fox News. "You can tell they didn't have a plan to ever leave Afghanistan … There would have been things in place already to get us safely out of there."
"The military knows how to do this," he continued. "This isn't incompetence, this is malice."
"This culture that the military has of, ‘no matter what, we're going to stay in these conflicts till we can slow roll presidents and essentially go against the will of the American people,' that's absolutely toxic," he continued.
"And then the Biden administration just wanting a political win and just wanting these optics … that just made this lethal combination there at Kabul International Airport that we all witnessed."
The U.S. completed its evacuation from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a chaotic exit.
President Biden addressed the nation the following afternoon – nearly 24 hours later – declaring the mission an "extraordinary success," despite stranding more than 100 American citizens and thousands of Afghan allies in Afghanistan.
Kent said waking up to the deep-rooted corruption within the government made him want to run for office.
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"The odds aren't in our favor, but I am optimistic," he said. "I think every day, people see the narrative coming from the establishment erode more and more. If we push hard and fight for it, we will take our country back."
Trump on Wednesday endorsed Kent, who is challenging Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. She was one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot.
"Joe served his country proudly for many years and understands the tremendous cost of America's wars in the Middle East, and elsewhere," the former president said in a statement. "In Congress, Joe will be a warrior for the America First agenda, unlike Jaime Herrera Beutler who voted, despite the facts, against the Republican Party and for the Democrats' Impeachment Scam."
Teny Sahakian is an Associate Producer at Fox News and Fox Business. Follow Teny Sahakian on Twitter at @tenysahakian.
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