rights is inconsistent with who we are and who i am. still, the saudis are rejoicing at the meeting, and president biden s presence there at all, despite his campaign pledge to make saudi arabia a, quote, pariah, over khashoggi s murder. president biden in fact greeted mbs, the country s de facto ruler, with a fist bump earlier today. neither leader answering questions from the press at the very start of their meeting. jamal khashoggi, will you apologize to his family, sir? thank you, guys. a reminder, according to president biden s own director of national intelligence, quote, we assess that saudi arabia s crown prince, muhammad bin salman, approved an operation in turkey to capture or kill saudi journalist jamal khashoggi, unquote. among the reasons for that assessment, the dni notes, among the murderous thugs who killed the washington post columnist and then chopped him up with a bone saw, were seven members of mbs quote elite personal protective detail, one tha
he was asked when americans could see it affect their gas prices, he predicted in a couple weeks. i want to bring in nic robertson who is also in jetta for today s meetings. before we get to your analysis, i want to read this from the publisher and ceo of the washington post, fred ryan, the washington post, of course, the former employer of washington post columnist jamal khashoggi. he said the fist bump between president biden and muhammad bin salman, the crown prince, was worse than a handshake, it was shameful. it projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivered to mbs the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking. we heard president biden list what he feels they accomplished today. do you think this was ultimately worth it in terms of the accomplishments he listed? it s a very big question to answer in a short way, jake. but let me lay out a couple
rights is inconsistent with who we are and who i am. still, the saudis are rejoicing at the meeting, and president biden s presence there at all, despite his campaign pledge to make saudi arabia a, quote, pariah, over khashoggi s murder. president biden in fact greeted mbs, the country s de facto ruler, with a fist bump earlier today. neither leader answering questions from the press at the very start of their meeting. jamal khashoggi, will you apologize to his family, sir? thank you, guys. a reminder, according to president biden s own director of national intelligence, quote, we assess that saudi arabia s crown prince, muhammad bin salman, approved an operation in turkey to capture or kill saudi journalist jamal khashoggi, unquote. among the reasons for that assessment, the dni notes, among the murderous thugs who killed the washington post columnist
concerns. he said this both as a candidate and as president, that he sees that the conduct of mbs and the role of the saudi kingdom in this particular brutal killing was beyond the pale, was despicable, and i would expect that we will continue to balance advocating our core principles around human rights with the sustained partnership with the saudis that is critical for us to sustain the unity of the west that president biden has played such a central role in pulling together in the months since russia invaded ukraine. so senator, first of all, joe biden when he was running for president, he said he was going to turn saudi arabia into a pariah nation. okay. he said he was going to turn saudi arabia into a pariah nation. he flew to saudi arabia, and he fist bumped muhammad bin salman, the man responsible, according to biden s own director of national intelligence, for ordering a brutal murder of a washington post journalist,
points here. before i came here to saudi, i talked to a couple of opposition activists. they re not in the country because it wouldn t be safe for them to be in the country. they both believe that unless president biden confronted muhammad bin salman directly on the issue of jamal khashoggi, unless he did that directly, then that would have no impact at all. one of the people i spoke to was lena, i m naming her because a lot of people will be familiar with her sister, who president biden pressured the crown prince to release early last year. she was released. she s still in saudi. she can t leave the country. her parents can t leave the country, and her sister spoke very eloquently to this point. that anything less than calling muhammad bin salman out will fail. she said this is the only way that the united states can seek and expect to have any kind of pressure, and she said it can