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You do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to" Joe Kent

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kent

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Kent has adhered to false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. A month following the January 6 Capitol attack, he stated Donald Trump had "no control" over the mob and attributed the severity of the attack to security planning. Kent attended the Justice for J6 rally and compared the treatment of rioters to that of Iraqi citizens in the Iraq War. He later called for releasing security footage of the attack, and claimed the mob was brought to violence by provocateurs associated with the deep state. After the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Kent told Steve Bannon on War Room the raid constituted "war". He called for defunding the Federal Bureau of Investigation in response.
Kent led a rally against a false claim that the Washington State Board of Health was set to forcefully quarantine citizens who did not get the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2022. In March, he appeared at an event organized by the Washington State Three Percenters, a far-right militia. Kent once advocated for a federal ban on abortion, but later narrowed his position towards states' rights. By the following month, he had called for an investigation into Anthony Fauci over the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and for a complete shutdown in immigration to the United States. In September, Kent stated Fauci should be charged with murder and described COVID-19 vaccines as "experimental gene therapy"; he is unvaccinated against COVID-19. At a rally with Matt Gaetz in September 2021, Kent advocated for school vouchers and per-child tax deductions for parents. Kent opposed several proposals to replace the Interstate Bridge, including tolling and light rail, in his 2024 campaign.
Foreign policy At a conference held at Washington Marriott Marquis in April 2022, Kent argued the "political establishment" seeks to initiate a conflict against Russia, including by providing military assistance to Ukraine—a level of support he outright opposed. He stated Russian president Vladimir Putin's demands for Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts were "very reasonable". His comments on Tucker Carlson Tonight denouncing support for Ukraine as deterring a peace deal were repeated by TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency.
Kent faced allegations of apparent associations between himself and white nationalists during his campaign. In March 2022, he entered into a dispute with the far-right commentator Nick Fuentes, who described a phone call the men had the previous year in which Kent purportedly said, "I love what you're doing." After Kent disavowed Fuentes and stated he had not sought his endorsement over his views on race and religion, Fuentes chastised Kent for not being sufficiently conservative. Kent was later interviewed by American Virtue, an organization associated with Fuentes, and stated American culture was "anti-white" and "anti-straight-white-male". The Associated Press reported in July the Kent campaign had paid a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right militia, as a consultant, that Kent was a political ally of Joey Gibson, a right-wing political activist, and that Kent had photographed himself with Greyson Arnold, a self-described Christian nationalist. The campaign told the Associated Press Kent was unaware who Arnold was. In September, CNN reported Kent had given an interview to Arnold. In his campaign, he made repeated references to Sam Francis, a white nationalist writer.

American political candidate and army officer

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