violations. we see that by the way he s embraced kim jong-un of north korea. and now with the kingdom of saudi arabia. so the president s language gives oxygen to that type of behavior and america needs to act through the voice of our president and also by our actions in regards to the relationship between our countries. in 2015 you introduced the global magnitsky act, originally targeted at russian officials that violate human rights. but here you could use similar measures against other countries, presumably saudi arabia. you have a possibility here where saudi arabia names some lower elevel consulate official, saying they acted without leadership approval. but the fact is u.s. intelligence is that senior saudi leadership at least okayed the abduction of khashoggi. would you support using the magnitsky act to target the
swo sworn, is that an action the u.s. should condone? absolutely not? this is a journalist that contributes to the washington post, who has privileges here in the united states. the world is looking at the u.s. for leadership. our foreign policy strength is in that it s embedded in our principals and our values. and the president needs to reinforce that. and the trump administration over and over again has divorced our foreign policy from our values. and we get into trouble, and the world suffers when we do that. your republican colleague, marco rubio was on our air just a few moments ago. and he said the following about possible bipartisan senate action. have a listen. i can tell you that a separate branch of government that i belong to, the senate and congress, i believe will act in a bipartisan way. this is going to alter the relationship between the united
relationship. this is a big hub in the region. it s trying to diversify from oil energy. it s been a big funder of tech and technology. a lot of ready money there. remember when elon musk said he was going to take his company private? all this saudi money, we could easily get this saudi money. there s a feeling there s all this saudi money there ready to invest. that s alluring for many of these companies but there is the public relations backlash of all this here. the u.s., though, interestingly, when you speak of democracy dependency, less dependent because of shale oil, about 10% of imports come from saudi arabia. remember, we have this big great trading relationship with canada, which is a big oil producer. the united states is now a net producer of oil, so we have the oil, the oil democraciy is less, but it s a global market.
states and saudi arabia for the foreseeable future. quite strong words there, alter the relationship for the foreseeable future. have you had conversations with your republican colleagues about specific actions to take against saudi arabia, including, for instance, the possibility of blocking the arms sales that the president has spoken to enthusiastically about? i have. i have talked to senator graham and corker. i think what senator rubio says expresses the views of all senators, that there is going to be consequences. we are an independent branch of government. we have shown it with russia and north kor radea and saudi arabi. we want the president s language to be clear, that america will not tolerate this type of behavior. president trump, in his language