the kingdom. according to multiple media reports now, the turkish government has alleged that saudi arabia dispatched a 15-member team to kill khashoggi while he was inside the consulate. earlier this week it was reported that saudis were prepared too protect the crown prince by saying khashoggi died in a botched interrogation manned by rogue agents. however, the new york times reporting that four of those 15 alleged killers were close to the crown prince himself. amid-this growing diplomatic crisis, the washington post reports that the crown prince has said to vacillate between dark brooding and rampaging anger. i m joined by pbs news hour white house correspondent, david corn, and foreign columnist. david, are we part of an effort to find the truth or to help the
this is bordering upon the surreal and the fact of the matter is, the saudis have now had two weeks to give us any evidence that khashoggi left. we have all of this leaked reporting from the turks suggesting that something truly awful happened in this that consulate. and i think we have to ask some questions now why, you know, our president is volunteering himself as the chief p.r. agent for the saudi government. the saudis didn t have to leak the story, maybe it was rogue agents that carried out this likely murder because the president of the united states was the one who floated it to the world. and when this is all said and done and we likely learn that something did happen to khashoggi very terrible and gruesome inside that consulate we re all going to have to ask ourselves why the president has volunteered himself to do work that you would normally expect the saudis to have to do on their own. and there was also, today, mike mom papompeo, seen smiling
awful happened in this that consulate. and i think we have to ask some questions now why, you know, our president is volunteering himself as the chief p.r. agent for the saudi government. the saudis didn t have to leak the story, maybe it was rogue agents that carried out this likely murder because the president of the united states was the one who floated it to the world. and when this is all said and done and we likely learn that something did happen to khashoggi very terrible and gruesome inside that consulate we re all going to have to ask ourselves why the president has volunteered himself to do work that you would normally expect the saudis to have to do on their own. and there was also, today, mike pompeo, seen smiling with mohammad bin salman, appearing to laugh, he releases a statement he thinks they re committed to transparency. what is that? i mean, just think of what s
freezing the assets in the united states, freezing travel to the united states, that that at a minimum is something we can apply to a situation where there s been a degrees violation of human rights. and certainly those who conspired, if this in fact happened, if they conspired to kill a journalist working for an american newspaper in the turkish embassy, then we certainly have that as a minimum. what would it take for you to credibly accept the story that the crown prince, that it was rogue agents, that it was a rendition gone bad? well, our president, president trump, said that was his kind of summary of his impressions of the conversation that he had can king salman. and i find it extraordinarily unlikely when you realize how an embassy works, you certainly don t have a plan where
interrogation or a rendition attempt that went horribly awry. by claiming that this thing was carried out by rogue agents, not controlled by the saudi government, that would presumably be an effort to absolve the saudi leadership, particularly to absolve the crown prince, mbs, of any responsibility. it would allow mohammed bin salman, the crown prince to say that he didn t order the killing of jamal khashoggi. someone went rogue. he can t be held accountable for it. well, now tonight the new york times has dug in, and they say they have independently verified the identity of at least nine members of this 15-member team of saudis. they say they ve confirmed that they re members of the saudi security services, the saudi military or other saudi government minute industries. the times say they compiled this information using a whole bunch of resources, facial recognition software, publicly available records, social media