Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree: CIA evidence ties Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death. But one GOP congressman is still taking President Trump's side — and making some alarming claims in the process.
In a Tuesday appearance on CNN, House Intelligence Committee member Chris Stewart (R-Utah) backed up Trump's previous dismissal of CIA findings, saying the information he received about Khashoggi's death "was not definitive." He then questioned why people seemed so fixated on Khashoggi's death, seeing as "journalists disappear all over the country," as well as in Mexico, China, and Turkey. "And yet we have to have relationship with these individuals," Stewart said.
Stewart's statement echoes Trump's earlier suggestion that holding bin Salman accountable for Khashoggi's murder was not worth tarnishing the U.S.-Saudi alliance. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) broke with Trump on Tuesday, loudly supporting the CIA's conclusion that bin Salman was behind Khashoggi's murder. Stewart did concede that these senators may have learned more in Tuesday's CIA briefing than he did last week.
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