Critics are calling out President Donald Trump for defending Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when asked about the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“He knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that,” Trump said on Tuesday as he scolded reporters during the Oval Office meeting with bin Salman. “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
He also suggested that Khashoggi may have had it coming.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happened.”
Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018. The CIA at the time ― which was then part of the first Trump administration ― concluded with “high confidence” that bin Salman orchestrated the killing, after which Khashoggi’s body was cut up with a bone saw so that it could be stealthily taken out of the consulate.
