Great with all of them. Instead, we are here to offer Partnership Based on shared interests and values. They spend 40 million, 50 million. To pursue a Better Future for all of us. Am i supposed to dislike him . I like him very much. President trump there with his take on americas values, saudi arabias values and what he values. The apparent murder of a Washington Post journalist by agents at the saudi kingdom is bringing into focus the president s troubling financial entanglements and perhaps even his indifference to human rights or even humanity. Welcome to morning joe on this friday. Along with joe, willie and me, we have Eugene Robinson, kaddy kay, Jeremy Peters and rick stengel. Were going to spend time this morning digging into the disappearance of Jamaal Khashoggi and President Trumps embrace of saudi arabia. Congress wants answers from the country. The president wants their money. Plus another 500 point drop and the dow jones is around the same level it was when the gop tax bill was signed into law. Whats behind the drop and where is the bottom . Meanwhile, it will take years for parts of florida, the Florida Panhandle specifically, for recovery in the wake of Hurricane Michael. And weve got the countdown clock to next months midterms. 25 days and running. Republicans are abandoning vulnerable lawmakers in a bid to keep control of the house. Also, kanye west visits the west wing, putting on a performance for donald trump and everyone else distracted from those four hugely important stories that we just mentioned. The white house doesnt seem to mind one bit. So, joe, im going to send it to you to pram tframe the morning and perhaps hone in on those republicans cutting their losses for the midterms. What do you think . Well, they are. Weve been seeing a couple of polls that have come out over the past few days in the aftermath of the kavanaugh hearings. That certainly gave a bump to republicans. At least this week. But three weeks to go, those are going to level out and i suspect change and well have competitive races in all of the key races. Those 10, 11 races weve been following for some time. But in the house, gop officials in washington, d. C. Are already considering the house in real danger. Theyre committing acts of triage. Theyre cutting some people off. Theyre going into other safer districts that they never thought that they would have to the put money in to try to save congressmen and Congress Women that should be safe by now and its the democrats who are now on the offensive in other red places and starting to try to pick up seats that nobody imagined they could have picked up even six months ago. Willie, of course to the back drop of all of this, is this khashoggis story . It couldnt have come at a worse time for donald trump. You have rand paul talking about the need to cut off all military fund to go saudi arabia, Lindsey Graham, others being outspoken and the news coming out, that at the end of the day, donald trump is willing to trade u. S. Foreign policy and American Values for cold, hard cash at his hotels, at his resorts. We heard stories that other people abandoned trumps properties, but the saudis are still reliable customers. And theres donald trump during the campaign saying, i love them. They gave me 40 million, 50 million dollars. Its just like don jr. Saying we love the russians, we get most of our money from them. To me, the most striking comment came from the president in the oval office when he talked about khashoggi and we heard the president , is he actually a citizen . He is a legal resident, by the way. But his defense for not wanting to act on this now was that 110 billion arms deal and the president of the United States talking about a man who has credibly been act ducted and murder, what am i going to do, give up the deal so china can get the money or russia can get the money . It all comes down to money with them but we are talking about a Washington Post reporter who is a legal resident in the United States state of virginia. And the reports are, and theyre still just reports, but most people believe, mika, that he was lured to the embassy on a plot that the leader of saudi arabia knew about, mbs, and then he was killed and he was dismembered and Donald Trumps response . Hey, we get a lot of money from them. He wasnt a citizen. Those are Donald Trumps values and one more thing for voters to think about as they go to the polls this fall. Saudi sheikhs, their cash and their oil trumps American Values. Good luck with that. There is new reporting on the Washington Post disappearance of Jamaal Khashoggi. He walked into the saudi arabia consulate on october 2nd and hasnt been seen since. According to the post, the turkish government has told u. S. Officials that it has audio and video recordings that prove khashoggi was interrogated, tortured, murdered w, and dismembered. The post reports that turkish officials are hesitant to release those recordings. Saudi arabia claims khashoggi left the consulate soon after entering and denies a role in his disappearance. As willie mentioned, in an interview yesterday, President Trump expressed concern that khashoggi may have been killed at the consulate, but went on to praise u. S. Relations with saudi arabia as, quote, excellent, and insisted that any consequences for the disappearance of the u. S. Based journalist would not be economic. There are certainly other ways to address this situation. But i will tell you right now, up front, theyre spending 110 billion purchasing military equipment and other things. If we dont sell it to them, theyll say, well, thank you very much, well buy it from russia or thank you very much, well buy it from china. There are other things we can do. Lets find out what the promise is first, okay . Do you oppose sanctions . I oppose i would not be in favor of stopping a country from spending 110 billion, which is an alltime record. First i want to find out what happened. And were looking. And, again, this took place in turkey and to the best of our knowledge, khashoggi is not a United States citizen. Is that right . Permanent resident. Permanent resident. We dont like it, john, and we dont like it even a little bit. But as to whether or not we should stop 110 billion from being spent in this country knowing they have to four or five alternatives, two very good alternatives, that would not be acceptable to me. For what its worth, the Washington Post notes that the president s claim about saudi arabia making 110 billion in arms purchases which he has been making since the spring of 2017 is false. The post notes that most of the publicly announced items from the summit in 2017 had been previously announced by the Obama Administration and there appear to be few in any signed contracts. Rather, many of the announcements were mem rorandum of intent. They conclude the 110 billion figure is not real and unlikely to come to fruition and even if it did, it represents sales far into the future. Joe. Another lie, of course, but were used to that. And, you know, gene robinson, were even used to donald trump selling out america and undermining americas values and selling out his soul and hiS Administrations soul for cold, hard cash. Just like with Vladimir Putin, and he defends him because don jr. Said thats where they get a lot of their money from russia. Here, its about money for donald trump, too. Hes willing to hock American Values, although a Washington Post columnist, one of your colleagues, to be chopped up and he said were not going to do anything about that. And this, sadly, its not shocking because this is who donald trump is to his core. That was a grotesque performance yesterday in the white house. Sxhesitly equating on the one. Hand this awful, unspeakable thing happened and they did it. On the other hand, gee, they give us a lot of money. What hes really thinking is they give me a lot of money. They spend a lot of money at his hotels. Hes looking toward the day when at some point hes no longer president and he certainly hopes to cash in to an even greater extent on this relationship. Somebody else to be mentioned in this whole thing which is Jared Kushner who has led the administration in establishing this very close, unquestioning relationship with mohammed solomon going all in on the saudis as our new best buddies in the middle east who have the right solutions to that the entractble problem. The administration has gotten nothing out of it. They were supposed to get all these better relationships with israel. They havent gotten that. They havent gotten any sort of peace dividend. But, gene, you dont understand. Gene, its not amateur hour. They werent looking for that in the first place. Youre right, joe. Youre right. No, theyre looking for funding for their projects. Exactly. Whether its trump hotels, whether its kushner properties, whether its trump properties. Yeah. We have said this from the beginning. Donald trump did not expect to be elected president. He is using his position to leverage it as much as he can to make as much cash. Gene, thats why. Its not amateur hour. They dont give a about how much mope america gets. They give a about how much money trump gets and how much kushner gets. And the saudis, great customers. And theyre getting that payoff. And later for the country. Later for human rights. What was done to Jamaal Khashoggi is just its just unbelievable its certainly cast appall over our offices and made me very sad for this country. Very sad for the country. Kaddy kay, it raises some questions that we have to answer and that is with Something Like this, known as widespread as it was reportedly known throughout the Intel Community, what did donald trump know about the mbs plot . When did he know it . What did Jared Kushner know about the m bs plot . When did he know it . What did the dni know about the m bs plot . What did they do about it . When did they know it . Who did they tell at the white house, the fbi, cia . All of these intel agencies, what did they know and when did they inform the white house that an american resident who is applying for a green card who is a columnist at the Washington Post was being set up and they had a legal duty, based on a 2015 law, to warn him . Those questions have to be answered, dont they . Yes. And the president has not answered them. The president S Administration had these intercepts. The president initially said he knew nothing about it. That seems implausible given that this was widely distributed amongst all of those bits of Intelligence Services that deal with saudi arabia, certainly to the National Security team in the white house, as well. And did they have a duty to warn khashoggi . That is something of a gray area because its not clear that the u. S. Had shown that mohammed bin solomon was going to harm him. I do think this is about more than this man, more than freedom of the press. This is about what role america wants to have in the world right now. What kind of leadership america wants to have in the world. Is america a country that is working totally transactionally and has no interest in propagating human rights, democracy, rule of law. The role that america has had for the last 70 years and in many ways, this khashoggi case, obscure that it might seem is a real test on of what americas leadership is going to be in the world right now because other countries are watching. Other authoritarian countries are watching and theyre thinking if america can get away with this, if america is going to turn a blind eye to this behavior, we can act with immunity. So consider this, President Trumps tie toes saudi arabia go well beyond the oval office with his businesses having connection to the country and with leaders there as far back as the 90s. According to the Washington Post, trump and his companies conducted various deals with the saudi government and Business Executives with that country over the years. The post says one example includes 1991 when trump was nearly 900 billion in debt from failed casino projects and he sold his 281 foot yacht to the saudi princer for 20 million. The paper says years later they agreed to pay off trumps debt on the property. Saudi customers continued to be vital after trump won the presidency, including saudi lobbyists who spent 270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trumps Hotels in washington. This year, Trumps Hotels in new york and chicago have reported uptickings. The president has not been shine about his affinity in saudi arabia bragging at a 2015 valley about his businesses with that country. Saudi arabia and i get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me, they spend 40 million, 50 million. Am i supposed to dislike them . I like them very much. So there are a lot of cross currents with saudi arabia. You have jared working with mbs on middle east pa peace and creating a cozy relationship with him. Bob corker said something yesterday that kind of got buried. He said hes picked up as the chair of the Foreign Relations committee a, quote, sense of arrogance from saudi leaders and the way they deal with lawmakers as if to say all we have to do is go to donald trump. By the way, let me just say first, willie, is he the worst negotiator in history . He takes the biggest thing off the table before he even negotiates with the saudis with, which is the arms sales. Is that good negotiating . If youre a good negotiator, you say well have to look at our arms sales and can trump takes it off the table. He is a terrible grocerier. Negotiator. Theyre both princes. The problem is hes a very mixed bag. Yes, as he told me in that meeting, im going to let women drive. Im going to let people go to the cinema. But hes doing this indiscriminate bombing in yemen which is a humanitarian disaster. He brought all of his fellow princes to the ritz carlton without due process and extorted money from them. He doesnt understand how to operate in the modern world. Its good and bad. A more Traditional Administration would go, look, mbs, we like this, we dont like that. If you do more of this, you can have a better relationship with us. But with jared and trump, its if you spend with us, you can do anything about impunity. And the fact that they are not concerned about an american resident being killed in a consulate in saudi, theres a problem. U. S. Intelligence knows that the saudi government was out to get this the Washington Post columnist. What is he up to here . Well, if thats the case, and lets presume that it is, i think hes looking to not have culpability. What is the first job of the president of the United States . To protect american citizens and american residents. And he let everybody down. The fact that they may not have known in this advance and not warned the saudis, not called solomon, whats the use of having a personal relationship with someone if you dont say, hey, dude, you cant do this. And this personal relationship we have found is one sided. The saudis get whatever they have. All they have to do is flash a picture of donald trump up on a building when they come visit. There is a way to fix that. Defund the saudis. Donald trump cant sell them weapons unless the Congress Says he can sell them wednesday. And, again, this is another test of leadership for a president who has, time and time again, aligned himself with leaders across the country who do not represent, do not care for the moral values that america has long projected to the world from the philippines to russia to saudi arabia. Look at the types of people that President Trump has embraced. And this id like to say that im surprised by this, but given his history here, no, not at all. I spoke with a lot of people yesterday. You dont really have to look very far in washington to find people who do business with the saudis here. And theres this real sense of how small this was. Like how weak, the weakness that it projects to go after an enemy, a journalist and have him killed in this grotesque way. Like its an episode of the americans or something. But its really struck a nerve here in washington and i even heard one person who does business with the saudis say yesterday, you know, the next time i may just donate their next check to a charity because its so disgusting and beyond the pale whats. Happened here. Andrew ross sorkin said he wasnt going to be going to a riyadh conference. Its a very good move. Other american reporters should do that. I got a call from somebody who grew up in washington, d. C. , is as entrenched in washington, d. C. As anybody. And it was sort of like what David Ignatius was saying about the russians and the column last week talking about how bush league putins moves have been, how that, while tragic, they were so easily picked up by other Intel Services and it makes them look like fools. Mika, yesterday i had somebody who was, you know, raised in the diplomatic core, knows washington as well or better than anybody e