Trump expresses new skepticism of Saudi 'fist fight' account of Khashoggi's death

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 21 October 2018

One day after telling reporters he found Saudi Arabia's "fist fight" explanation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul credible, President Trump expressed greater skepticism of the account.

"Nobody has told me [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is] responsible" for ordering Khashoggi's death, Trump told The Washington Post in a phone interview Saturday night. "Nobody has told me he's not responsible. We haven't reached that point ... I would love if he wasn't responsible."

The president dubbed the Saudi prince an "incredible ally," but conceded "obviously there's been deception, and there's been lies" about how Khashoggi died. The journalist went missing two weeks ago, and Riyadh previously denied all knowledge of his whereabouts. Saudi Arabia is known for its poor record on human rights, and the alliance has embroiled the United States in the gruesome Saudi intervention in Yemen.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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