SCOOP: Rep. Ronny Jackson praises NCTC Director Joe Kent's leadership amidst global terrorism

The uptick in radical Islamic terrorist attacks and close calls from around the world is shining a renewed spotlight on an already high profile congressional hearing from just last week.

During a hearing held by the House Homeland Security Committee, Joe Kent — the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) — cautioned that America has not fully grappled with the consequences of either failed Afghanistan withdrawal or the open border presided over by President Joe Biden.

“We’re working right now hand in hand with DHS and with the FBI to run down this 2,000, the Afghans who came here under Allies Welcome who have ties to terrorist organizations, and additionally the other 16,000 individuals of ties to terrorist organizations that Biden let into our country,” Kent told Congress. “That is probably the top terrorist threat that we face right now, and that doesn’t include the individuals who came here illegally through the open border. That number alarmingly remains unknown at this time. We’re trying to figure out who those individuals are as well.”

But Kent also warned about a “new terrorist playbook” that foreshadowed the horrors that followed only a few days later on a beach in Australia, when a father-son duo of Islamic terrorists murdered over 16 Jews at a Hannukah celebration.

“Honestly the attacks of October 7th, the decentralized and just barbaric nature of that is the new terrorist playbook,” Kent cautioned. “They’re not looking necessarily for a spectacular attack like we had on 9/11, but targets of opportunity, like we tragically saw with the terrorist attack in Washington, D.C. these smaller cells or even individual operatives taking action, that’s what has us very concerned, combined with just the sheer volume.”

One House Republican told the Washington Reporter that Kent’s warnings, combined with terrorist attacks in America, are a “stark reminder of the ongoing consequences of Joe Biden’s reckless Afghanistan withdrawal.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), who spent decades serving in the Navy and who was a presidential physician to both Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, cited the recent murder of a National Guardswoman by an Afghan national who was welcomed into America during Biden’s presidency to make his point.

Jackson, a member of the House’s Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence, further added that “Director Kent’s testimony confirms that President Trump’s leadership is restoring strength and accountability to our counterterrorism efforts, while Democrats remain focused on demonizing ICE. Last weekend’s horrific mass shooting in Australia should be a wake-up call. It’s time to prioritize effective counterterrorism over political agendas.”

Kent’s concerns have been repeatedly raised by his boss, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard as well. The Reporter previously noted how both Kent and Gabbard were vindicated about their concerns over radical Islamic terrorism following the tragic murder of National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom just feet from the White House. For years, Gabbard has been a fierce critic of “Islamist terrorism.”

Just weeks ago, she sounded the alarm about al-Qaeda affiliates, lone wolf attackers, and “ISIS and these other Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist organizations, all of who really abide by this same is in this ideology attempting to not only plan attacks against the United States, but really their ultimate goal is to undermine our Constitution, undermine our freedom, our democratic republic, and install their own Islamist caliphate and rule over everyone based on their Sharia law.”

The terrorists in Australia were reportedly tied to ISIS.