House Republicans defended President Donald Trump’s assembly with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the White House on Tuesday, although they made clear they opposed the homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA assessed bin Salman possible ordered.
Asked by NCS’s Manu Raju about Trump’s suggestion that the crown prince knew nothing in regards to the homicide, Rep. Michael McCaul, a prime GOP overseas coverage voice, responded “I don’t want to debate the president on that.”
The former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair mentioned he noticed proof in briefings on the time and was “very vocally opposed and still am” to the killing, although he added, “I do think it’s time to move forward in this new Middle East that we’re in.”
Pressed on if the president must be basically protecting up for bin Salman, McCaul pointed to the president’s plans to promote F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia.
“I think that’s a positive move, because to pull Saudi as an ally of the United States in this direction, rather than to China, and it will also solidify normalization in that process, in a post Gaza world,” he continued.
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler referred to as Khashoggi’s homicide a “terrible tragedy,” and mentioned, “obviously there has been some level of accountability.”
“That being said, he is the crown prince of Saudi Arabia,” he continued. “Saudi Arabia is a vital ally in the region, and a country that long term we need to deal with. He will be the king of Saudi Arabia, and so you have to engage moving forward.”
Pressed by Raju on Trump’s dismissal of the Saudi authorities’s function in Khashoggi’s demise, Lawler responded, “I don’t agree with that. I mean, at the end of the day, what happened to Khashoggi never should have happened.”