Marjorie Taylor-Greene, the Republican former lawmaker from Georgia who turned from staunch supporter of Trump to fierce critic over his response to the Jeffrey Epstein case and his decisions to launch military operations against Venezuela and Iran, urged Gabbard and Vance — another outspoken critic of “forever wars” — to speak candidly after Kent resigned.

“People are paying attention, very close attention. Silence won’t cut it,” Greene posted on social media. “You were both on record repeatedly, publicly, and loudly against going to war with Iran.”

The White House rejected Kent’s criticisms in his resignation letter, in which he claimed Israeli officials and members of the U.S. news media had deceived Trump that the U.S. needed to initiate a war against Iran.

“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media.

The decision took into account that Iran sponsors terrorism, that it has killed Americans, that it had a ballistic missile program that served as a shield for its nuclear program and that it failed to take advantage of U.S. diplomatic overtures, Leavitt wrote.

Trump said Tuesday that he thought Kent was a nice guy, “but I always thought he was weak on security,” and that Kent’s statement reinforced that view.

“When I read his statement, I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out,” Trump said.

Polls show Americans are divided over the war, and some Republican strategists worry that if it drags on, it could inflict serious damage on GOP candidates in the midterms in November.

A national NBC News poll conducted just as the strikes began found sharp partisan divides, with 77% of Republicans saying the U.S. should have struck Iran, while 15% disagreed.

Among those who identify with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, the number was even higher, with 90% of self-identified MAGA-aligned Republicans backing the strikes. A large majority of Democrats, 89%, said the U.S. should not have struck Iran, along with 58% of independents.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has been a longtime skeptic of U.S. wars abroad, said that Kent was a welcome voice for “caution” and that “we’ll miss his presence.”

Daniel Davis, a retired Army officer who, like Kent, served in multiple combat tours, called Kent’s resignation an act of “moral courage” and said the strikes must have weighed heavily on him and others who share his view.

“I wondered how both he and Tulsi could continue on with this job, knowing how they felt,” Davis said on his podcast “Deep Dive.” “I just couldn’t imagine having to work under those conditions. And now we see that Joe was not able to do that in good conscience. He could not continue on.”

Davis is a fellow at the Defense Priorities think tank, which takes a skeptical view of foreign military intervention, and he was nominated to serve with Kent in the National Intelligence Director’s Office. But Gabbard withdrew his nomination in March over his critical views on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Gabbard ran afoul of Trump over Iran last year. In March, she told lawmakers that intelligence indicated that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that the regime had not revived a weapons project that was suspended in 2003.

Asked about the assessment in June, Trump said: “I don’t care what she said.”