513
I touched on this point in a previous chapter (ch X) but let’s not put a fine point on it. Trump is not going to turn on MBS for the same reason he will never turn on Putin. I mean MBS killed a Washington Post journalist-Trump hates Washington Post journalists-who the Saudis had banned for criticizing: Donald Trump.
Trump really hates Washington Post journalists who criticize him. That fact pattern alone strongly suggests that MBS is in the clear. But it’s so much worse than just that. Trump colluded with MBS just as he did with Putin. Remember when the Saudi prince-now King declared that he had Jared in his back pocket?
I think when this was reported, a lot of people probably assumed this referred to all the business the Trump family gets from the Saudis. But it’s about more than that-it’s political. Saudi Arabia’s Putin has the goods on Trump as surely as the Russian version does.
Nick Robertson argues that as absurd as the Saudis explanation of what happened to Khashoggi was-he got in a fist fight in the Saudi consulate in Turkey-and lost badly-MBS will get a pass.
What do you give the man who has everything?
The answer, it seems, is an indemnity from the White House for complicity in an alleged murder.
“Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, or MBS as he is known, is widely believed to own a $500M mega-yacht, one of the world’s most expensive houses, a sumptuous chateau outside Paris and last year to have set a new art world record for the most expensive painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi which he picked up for a snip at $450M.”
“His minions, Saudi Arabia has now admitted, were involved in the demise of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi almost three weeks ago.”
“Today though he needs nothing more, it would seem, than to be able to carry on his extravagant life and one-man rule of the Middle East’s richest nation as if nothing has happened. And President Trump is helping.”
“Trump applauded MBS for his moment of epiphany on Saturday, after his state news agency admitted that 18 days after Khashoggi went missing, that he was in fact dead, just as Turkish officials have believed all along.”
“Until Saturday, Saudi officials from MBS down had denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi. MBS told Bloomberg TV on the October 3, the day after Khashoggi went in to the consulate to obtain paperwork that would have allowed him to marry, “My understanding is he entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour. I’m not sure. We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time.”
His statement didn’t pass the laugh test then, and the flimsy confection of the latest explanation doesn’t pass it now, though it will, of course, please Trump.
“It’s not just that, in the state-run Saudi Press Agency’s preposterous telling, a mild-mannered 59-year-old somehow got himself into a fatal fistfight with multiple Saudi officials. Or that MBS will be in charge of investigating his own intelligence agency that is stuffed full of his hand-picked ultra-loyalists. Or indeed that some of those loyalists are sidelined with no explanation. The whole accounting, released in the dead of night in Riyadh, lacks even the remotest hint of sincerity.”
“Part of the statement expresses “deep regret” about “the painful developments.” Which raises the question: Why bury this announcement at 1 a.m. local time Saturday, not within the usual working hours for the Saudi Attorney General. And why with so much deep regret and sadness is the most important and painful issue for Khashoggi’s family and friends not addressed, the whereabouts of his body or even a reason why this alleged fistfight broke out.”
But we know where Trump is going with this:
Trump says the US hasn’t finished its review of the Saudi investigation yet, but as has shown all along he is predisposed to backing the young royal. “It’s early. We haven’t finished our review or investigation but it’s, I think it’s a very important first step,” he said.
“Trump appears to be giving MBS exactly what he wants, his blessing to carry on regardless.”
Of course, again Khashoggi’s great offense was criticizing Trump himself in a news column-does anyone think that he believes a political assassination is excessive for the sin of criticizing himself?
He’s already compared MBS to Kavanaugh and we saw what a joke the Kavanaugh investigation was. Trump is no more likely to turn on MBS than he is to turn on Putin and that chances of that are nil. .
Now as to what Congress will do, that’s another matter. They’re plenty they can do if they want. But while many GOP Congressmen-it’s mostly men-have expressed great skepticism and concern, with their two year track record carrying ‘President Trump’s water, you have to be pretty skeptical that they will do anything about it either. That will probably require a Democratic Congress aka the #AccountabilityCongress.
UPDATE: Done (Chapter A). The Dems do intend to investigate Kashoggi’s death and what the Trump Russia House knew and did in response to it.
Greg Olear asks how complicit is the U.S. government in the murder of Khashoggi?
But phrasing it this way misses the point that Trump has deviated in many ways from long term U.S. policy. Trump and his family are totally complicit. But unless you understand the backdrop-the collusion with MBS to rig the 2016 election just how complicit doesn’t come into view.
UPDATE 2.0: Here in July, 2019-7 months into the Dem’s leadership of the House-there’s been very little accountability sad to say. MBS has escaped any accountability and the Trump Russia House accountability for its complicity. The story has largely died as so much else of Trump’s corruption, abuse, and criminality.
No doubt a major culprit is the MSM and we know the shameful conduct of Trump’s GOP co-conspirators. Still the Pelosi defenders you see demanding that we ‘Yell at Mitch McConnell not Pelosi’ miss the point. It’s pretty absurd to expect McConnell’s Senate to be tougher on Trump than the Democratic House itself.
The Pelosi defenders seem to think everyone can be blamed for Trump’s skirting any accountability-the GOP traitors who put party over country at every turn-the MSM who says absurd things like the CNN pundit on Sunday who criticized both sides for Trump’s racist tweets.
But what about Pelosi’s own complicity-her decision to dial back confrontation with Trump’s misconduct as much as possible? Those who claim she can’t do anything because McConnell won’t cooperate are essentially saying she and her Dem House leadership are powerless to do any meaningful oversight without GOP buy in. If that’s true then we wasted our time working so hard to elect a Dem House.
Indeed, Pelosi seems to have more relish for attacking AOC than this fake ‘President.’
Sadly she thinks she benefits more politically attacking AOC than Trump-this is due in large part to learning the wrong lessons from 2016-that to win you need white Trump supporters as well to the wrong lesson from history-that the GOP lost big by impeaching Clinton compounded with the strange idea that Trump is more comparable to Clinton than Nixon.
If anything I think Pelosi is actually helping AOC and Friends. I’m not someone personally disposed to being a huge AOC fan-I think the Green New Deal is a great aspiration for us but the details need a lot of work for actual policy-AOC herself doesn’t totally deny this. I’m also not for Medicare for All but Medicare for All(Who Want it).
But I appreciate AOC-along with Ilahn Omar, Ayanna Pressley,-and best for last, Rashida Tlaib-in the willingness to punch back and stand on principle.
While the talking heads insist that for AOC and Friends to simply breath somehow hurts the Democrats I think many appreciated their press conference yesterday-at least they aren’t afraid to directly confront Trump’s racism, xenophobia, abuse of power and illegitimacy-Omar directly mentioned his collusion.
All I know is they unlike Pelosi and Steny Hoyer are willing to directly and publicly speak out in a forceful, principled way-rather than all this tall talk about ‘self impeach.’
Amazing that people are credulously echoing Trump's claim that attacking the Squad is good politics, without mentioning that Rs said the same about AOC in 2018, just before biggest House loss since Watergate.
Perhaps it's different now, but you need to at least *mention* 2018.
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) July 16, 2019