Lawmakers, even GOP lawmakers are sickened by Trump's alliance and defense of a man that the CIA has denounced as a murderer.
Donald Trump has no morals or ethics, but lawmakers are resiling from traveling down the dark hole with Donald Trump.
Let us hope that Satan's slave, Jared Kushner, is pushed out of the White House by the movement against Trump and the Saudis.
American's are embarrassed by Trump's association and defense of a murderer.
Lawmakers denounce Trump's backing of Saudis, despite Khashoggi killing
Lawmakers denounce Trump's backing of Saudis, despite Khashoggi killing
The White House's pledge to maintain its strong military and economic alliance with Saudi Arabia amid reports that U.S. intelligence has assessed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has ignited a flurry of bipartisan condemnation in Washington.
After President Trump issued a remarkable statement on Tuesday in which he acknowledged that the heir apparent to the Saudi throne may have known about the "tragic event," but that his administration nevertheless "intended to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia," several Republican and Democratic members of Congress denounced the White House's position.
"I'm pretty sure this statement is Saudi Arabia First, not America First," Republican Sen. Rand Paul, an ally of the president but ardent critic of America's relationship with the Saudis, wrote on Twitter.
The lawmaker from Kentucky accused National Security Adviser and foreign policy hawk John Bolton of writing the statement and criticized American assistance to the Saudi-led coalition waging a bloody war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
"We should, at the very least, NOT reward Saudi Arabia with our sophisticated armaments that they in turn use to bomb civilians," Paul added.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has largely embraced the administration's doctrine across the world, wrote on Twitter that "our foreign policy must be about promoting our national interests." The junior senator from Florida stressed that defending human rights is vital to America's national security because human rights violations fuel "mass migration," foster extremism and benefit governments hostile to the U.S.
In a statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the U.S. can't overlook Khashoggi's high-profile killing and alleged dismemberment, and suggested that there was bipartisan support among lawmakers to sanction individuals involved in the assassination, including members of the royal family.
"While Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally, the behavior of the Crown Prince – in multiple ways – has shown disrespect for the relationship and made him, in my view, beyond toxic," Graham added.
Constant Trump critics Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Bob Corker also condemned the statement. The retiring senator from Arizona said "great allies" don't lure their own citizens into a trap, and then have them killed.
"I never thought I'd see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia," Corker, who is also retiring, wrote on Twitter.
In his statement, President Trump touted Saudi Arabia's important role in America's national security apparatus and the billions of dollars he said the U.S has received in arms transactions with the royal family. He said U.S. intelligence agencies are still probing Khashoggi's murder. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't!" President Trump said in a statement, referring to the possibility that the Saudi Crown Prince ordered the journalist's brutal killing.
Meanwhile, Democrats — who will have control of important House committees that could potentially investigate Khashoggi's assassination and the U.S.-Saudi alliance — were more scathing in their criticism and directly referenced the president.
"The President's failure to hold Saudi Arabia responsible in any meaningful way for the death of Jamal Khashoggi is just one more example of this White House's retreat from American leadership on issues like human rights and protecting the free press," the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a statement.
Although he said the government should always consider the U.S.' close cooperation with the oil-rich kingdom, Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused President Trump of damaging America's "standing as a champion of human rights."
"To suggest 'maybe he did and maybe he didn't' or that we are incapable of finding out the truth, or that knowing the truth our silence can be bought with arms sales, undermines respect for the Office of the Presidency," Schiff said.
After labeling President Trump's response a "betrayal of long-established American values of respect for human rights," Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, the newspaper for which Khashoggi penned opinion pieces, called on the administration to make the intelligence evidence on the murder public and urged Congress to act in the wake of "failure of leadership" from the White House.
"President Trump is correct in saying the world is a very dangerous place," Ryan said in a statement. "His surrender to this state-ordered murder will only make it more so. An innocent man, brutally slain, deserves better, as does the cause of truth and justice and human rights."
With enormous ease Trump lied his way through another news conference yesterday.
TRUMP: “After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States.
Actual orders under the arms deal are actually far smaller and neither country has announced or substantiated Trump’s repeated assertion that the Saudis are poised to inject $450 billion overall into the U.S. economy.
Partly negotiated under the Obama administration, it mixes old deals, some new business and prospective purchases that have not been worked out. The Pentagon said last month that Saudi Arabia had signed “letters of offer and acceptance” for only $14.5 billion in military purchases and
confirmed Tuesday that nothing further has reached that stage.
Moreover, the State Department estimated last year that if the full $110 billion in
prospective business is fulfilled, it could end up “potentially supporting tens of thousands of new jobs in the United States.” That’s a far cry from the 500,000 to 600,000 jobs that Trump has said the arms deal is worth.
The U.S. exported only $16 billion in goods to Saudi Arabia last year, and imported even more. Saudi Arabia’s entire annual economic production is valued at $684 billion. A $450 billion Saudi investment in the U.S. would amount to about 6 percent of its entire economy going to the U.S. if spread, for example, over 10 years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...d0975fd6199_story.html?utm_term=.a3f24309f051
Trump cited the Kingdom's influence over oil prices and said, "if we abandon Saudi it would be a terrible mistake." Trump also said he was
"not going to destroy the economy of our country" over Khashoggi by giving up arms deals to Saudi Arabia.
Destroying our economy over Khashoggi is preposterous, and only his diehard fans could believe that statement. The U.S. economy does not need Saudi oil. The U.S. is a net oil exporter. Apparently, Trump did not know that. No one is talking about abandoning S.A.
"The CIA looked at it," Trump told journalists at the White House. "
They have nothing definitive." "Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said.
The CIA's report is about as definitive as you can get. Based on the clandestinely recorded audio of the Washington Post columnist’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, the CIA had concluded with
"high confidence" that the crown prince directly ordered Khashoggi's killing.
Was there any part of this news conference where Trump actually told the truth. Sure, he began by saying his family would spend Thanksgiving at Mar-a- Lago.
