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It's Thursday, the 19th of March. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker,
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your eyes and ears on the world stage. Alright, let's get briefed.
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First up, the war with Iran is entering a new phase, with strikes on critical energy
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targets pushing oil prices higher and threatening global supply. Later in the show,
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former senior Trump intelligence official Joe Kent is now under FBI investigation for alleged
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leaks just days after stepping down in protest over the Iran War. But first, today's afternoon
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spotlight. The conflict in Iran has now expanded. Energy infrastructure, once considered essentially
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off limits by all sides, is now apparently fair game. And the repercussions for the global energy
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markets and the global economy could be severe. A day after Israel targeted the South
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Paras gas field in Iran, hence one of the largest natural gas fields in the world in a critical
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piece of energy infrastructure that's shared between Iran and Qatar, Iran has launched retaliatory
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strikes on energy infrastructure and neighboring Gulf states. Tehran has now begun targeting
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energy facilities that it says are tied to US interests. One of the first Iranian strikes
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was on Qatar's liquefied natural gas infrastructure. Specifically, they hit Qatar's
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Roslophone industrial city. Now, it's the world's largest liquefied natural gas facility
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and the center of Qatar's LNG operations. It accounts for roughly a fifth of the global
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supply of LNG. At the same time, Iranian officials are issuing very explicit warnings.
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If their energy sector continues to be targeted, they will escalate until the energy infrastructure
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of the US and its allies is in their words, quote, completely destroyed.
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Now, the White House appears to be trying to walk a very fine line here. On Wednesday evening,
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President Trump tried to distance the US from the South Paras strike. Trump said on social media
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posts, quote, of the US, knew nothing about this particular attack. And the country of Qatar
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was in no way shape or form involved with it. Nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.
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Trump also tried to put a cap on further escalation, saying there should be no additional
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tax on that field, unless Iran strikes Qatar again. Meanwhile, all of this is playing out
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at the same time, of course, as the ongoing disruption around the East Strait of Khormuz.
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And all of that turmoil is having a significant impact on pricing as you might suspect.
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Brent Crude, the international benchmark, briefly surged above $119 a barrel
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before settling back around $110 a barrel. Now, that's still up more than 3% on the day.
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US benchmark Crude also moved higher, climbing to about $96 a barrel.
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant says that the US is looking at several options to try to
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keep prices under control, at least in the short term. One of those options is to effectively
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release Iranian oil that's already sitting on tankers at sea. That's about 140 million barrels.
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By temporarily easing or waving sanctions, so those shipments can actually be delivered and
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sold on the open market. So, yes, one option being considered is easing sanctions on Iranian oil.
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There is irony in there somewhere, if you look for it. Right now, much of that oil is essentially
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stranded, floating storage, basically, because sanctions make it difficult to ensure,
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finance, or legally purchase those cargoes. What the administration is considering is flipping
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that switch, allowing buyers and shippers and insurers to move that oil without penalty.
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And because that oil is already sitting on the water, well, it can reach the market much faster
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than new production. That's the thinking anyway. At the same time, the US could tap its own
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strategic petroleum reserve, again, releasing emergency stockpiles of Crude to keep prices from surging.
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It's a familiar move, but it is, of course, a short-term temporary fix.
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And on the domestic side, the White House has issued a 60-day waiver of what's called the Jones
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Act. That's a century-old law that requires goods shipped between US ports to travel on American
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built-in operated vessels. Therefore, loosening restrictions so oil, natural gas, and other resources
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could move more freely. The problem is that all these options are designed to manage symptoms of
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the problem. Not the cause. If the Iranian regime decides to continue hitting energy infrastructure
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around the Gulf and continues to effectively blockage shipments through the strait of Hormuz,
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now releasing emergency oil reserves or easing sanctions or other temporary measures,
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essentially just putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound. The Trump administration is going to have
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to figure out a way to calm the markets, to guarantee that refineries and other infrastructure
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are safe from further targeting, and the tankers can once again move freely through the strait.
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Alright, coming up next, a former top-conner terrorism official Joe Kent, who just resigned over
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the Iran War, is now reportedly under investigation by the FBI over alleged leaks. I'll be right back.
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Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. After stepping down in protest from the Trump
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administration over the war with Iran, former national counterterrorism center director Joe Kent
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finds himself under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information in a probe
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that apparently was long underway before he resigned. The Washington-based outlet Semaphore,
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citing four individuals with direct knowledge of the investigation, first reported this story.
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Kent is notably the first senior official to leave the Trump administration over the U.S.
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Israel War with Iran. The former NCTC director is a longtime ally of President Trump. Well,
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that's not going to last much longer. And a retired green beret who had built a reputation inside
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the national security world serving 11 combat deployments over a 20-year army special forces
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career before spending a year or so with the CIA as a paramilitary contractor. He then began
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commentating for various news outlets before making two unsuccessful runs for Congress. He then
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went to work for Tulsi Gabbard before being appointed to the National Counterterrorism Center in 2025.
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In the lead up to his resignation, he publicly broke with the administration's justification for
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the war, arguing that Iran did not pose what he described as a quote imminent threat to the U.S.
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such as the White House had reported. And that's where the situation obviously begins to shift,
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as Kent's standing inside the administration had already begun to erode. A senior administration
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official who spoke anonymously with Fox News described him as a quote known leaker, saying Kent had been
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cut out of key intelligence briefings months before his departure, raising questions about how much
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trust remained well before he ultimately stepped down. Now the FBI has yet to comment on the specifics
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of the leaks. Kent had been serving under director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who pushed
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back on his claims, emphasizing that the president, not individual intelligence officials,
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is responsible for determining what constitutes an imminent threat. When pressed on the issue during
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a congressional hearing, Gabbard declined to say whether she personally believed Iran's nuclear
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program met that threshold. Kent, however, took a very different view in his resignation letter.
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In his letter NBC News reports that Kent criticized the decision to go to war, arguing that the U.S.
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was being pulled into a conflict that did not serve American interests. He said that while he
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supported Trump's values in his first term, he believed the president had been wrongly swayed by
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Israel. He wanted to claim the attack on Iran was, quote, due to pressure from Israel's powerful
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American lobby, and said he could not support, quote, sending the next generation off to fight and
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die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people, end quote. Now that naturally drew a
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swift response from the White House. Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said President Trump had, quote,
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strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the U.S. first, defending the
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administration's decision that the threat assessment came from the highest levels of American
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intelligence, not Jerusalem. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday,
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the 19th of March. Now if you have any questions or comments and I hope you do, please reach out to me
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at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show add free, well that is very simple to do,
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just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com.
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I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.
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