u.s. presidents have to varying degrees been willing to pander to saudi arabia. to the arms of an old friend, the kingdom of saudi arabia. the pariah that they are. we must act and we will act. the president who vowed to be different. president biden is about to kiss the ring of mbs. remarkable reversal. it s going to be awkward. is now just another patron of a prince. the crown prince is a wrecking ball. a dictator renowned for a very brutal end. his body was chopped up into small pieces. why would you bring a bone saw? who at the same time is a reformer. this man is extremely popular. revolutionizing his nation. new era, new age. it s that simple. the kingdom s power lies under the desert sands. keep your pumps up and you can do whatever you want out back. liquid gold oil. is america betraying its values? to understand this unusual relationship you need to understand the very unusual country that is saudi arabia. good evening. saudi
but five years ago, king salman shook up this established ritual. after an interim choice, he installed as crown prince his then 31-year-old son. saudi arabia has a new heir to the throne. a royal shakeup in the house of saud. mohammad bin salman, mbs, was an obscure young royal known to almost no one outside saudi arabia. now he is poised to succeed his ailing father and rule the kingdom for half a century if his health and the monarchy hold out. this is somebody with a great deal of ambition and who has the complete support and faith of his father. when mbs rocketed to power, he began to shake things up almost right away. the old saudi system seemed ancient. with senior royals running ministries like earls and dukes. mbs put an end to that,
corners of glittering cities. american pop stars perform to sold-out crowds. some of the world s best golfers are leaving the pga to join the saudi tour. all of this even as the world cannot forget the gruesome murder of washington post journalist jamal khashoggi. the 2018 killing was ordered, says the cia, by the crown prince of saudi arabia himself, mohammed bil salman. mbs has also sparked a saudi renaissance. an economic boom. he s taken on extremists, has given rights to women. joe biden once called him a pariah. now he s about to make a friendly visit to an old ally but a story that is making a turn. in saudi arabia almost nothing
after 9/11 the monster turned against its homeland. mounting a deadly offensive inside the kingdom. the house of saud mounted a vicious counterattack. they began systematically to find and go after al qaeda cells in the kingdom. mohammed bil salman. but the ideology of wahhabism is still alive across the world. when isis established its schools, the textbooks that it first used came from saudi arabia. the narrative that you have to behead and kill anyone who doesn t believe in what you believe, the narrative you have to blow up mosques, the narrative that anyone who s not a muslim does not have any rights, not even the right to
we got hit with the distilled essence of everything that was going on out back. osama bin laden and 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were all suddenies. saudis. more isis soldiers come from saudi than from anywhere else in the middle east. for years america has been desperate for a new day in saudi arabia. welcome to the stage, ladies and gentlemen, his royal highness enter the 36-year-old crown prince mohammad bin salman. he is unlike any saudi ruler the world has seen before. mbs effectively took over from his father, king salman, five years ago. suddenly everything in saudi arabia seemed to change.