Joe Kent triggers Tucker’s alarm when he says Israeli officials “short-circuit” the US government and tell American policymakers things that we know are simply not true.

KENT: “I know the Israeli officials, some in intelligence, some in government, will come to US government officials, and they will say all kinds of things that we know from our intelligence just simply isn’t true.”

“And they’ll say, ‘Hey, I’m giving you a preview. It’s not an intelligence channel as yet, but here’s what’s gonna happen.’ And that doesn’t usually come to our—”

CARLSON: “Well, wait, wait a second. I mean, I thought that US policymakers made their decisions on the basis of intelligence collected and/or vetted by our intelligence community.”

“You’re saying that Israeli officials short-circuited the entire US government and just went right to American policymakers and said, ‘It doesn’t matter what your country says. Here’s what we know.’ Is that what you’re saying?”

KENT: “I mean, usually they’re pretty slick.”

CARLSON: “Oh, of course.”

KENT: “And they’ll say, ‘Hey, this isn’t in intelligence channels yet because it’s going to take some time to get there. [Iran is] on the cusp of building a [nuclear] bomb.’”

“A lot of times they’ll sample different things until they find what sticks.”