House Republicans defended President Donald Trump’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday, though they made clear they opposed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA assessed bin Salman likely ordered.
Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about Trump’s suggestion that the crown prince knew nothing about the murder, Rep. Michael McCaul, a top GOP foreign policy voice, responded “I don’t want to debate the president on that.”
The former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair said he saw evidence in briefings at the time and was “very vocally opposed and still am” to the killing, though 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 should be essentially covering up for bin Salman, McCaul pointed to the president’s plans to sell 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 called Khashoggi’s murder a “terrible tragedy,” and said, “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 government’s role in Khashoggi’s death, Lawler responded, “I don’t agree with that. I mean, at the end of the day, what happened to Khashoggi never should have happened.”