Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murder
The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
What happened
President Donald Trump Tuesday warmly welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oval Office, and assailed a reporter who asked about the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives.
The CIA concluded that the crown prince, known as MBS, ordered Khashoggi’s death, but Trump said the Saudi leader “knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking” such a “horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question,” he told ABC News’ Mary Bruce, adding that ABC’s broadcast “license should be taken away.”
Who said what
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said of Khashoggi. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” Trump wasn’t “merely glossing over” the journalist’s murder, CNN said. He “took offense” that the subject was even raised during “what he intended to be a splashy show of respect” for the Saudi ruler. The grand welcome and lavish dinner laid on for MBS was “more typical” for the leader of an “allied Western democracy” than an “absolute monarchy with a troubled human rights record,” said CBS News.
The U.S. government “often advances its national interests by working with nasty people,” and MBS “is one of the nastiest,” The Washington Post said in an editorial. But Trump’s performance Tuesday was “something else entirely: weak, crass and of no strategic benefit to America.” His “distortions dishonor Khashoggi’s legacy,” and “no doubt other dictators took note” of Trump’s “debility” with the Saudi leader.
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What next?
Trump and MBS are scheduled to participate in an investment conference at the Kennedy Center today, after which the crown prince was expected to depart the U.S.
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