Khashoggi Case Shows US President Can Be Bought: Congress Member
“Once again, our President proves that you can’t buy a moral compass, she posted on her Twitter account on Tuesday.
“And Saudi Arabia proves that you can, on the other hand, buy a President,” she added.
Omar, previously a Somali refugee and a community activist, easily won over her republican opponent Jennifer Zielinski after campaigning on a platform promoting criminal justice reform, more accessible healthcare and the abolishing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
She made the Tuesday comments in reaction to Trump’s declaring his strong support for Saudi Arabia, effectively ignoring the CIA’s conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the brutal killing of Khashoggi and asserting that relations with a critical ally should not be derailed.
In an exclamation-mark-packed statement that aides said he dictated himself, Trump said that US intelligence would continue to “assess” information but that the United States “may never know all the facts surrounding the murder.”
Speaking of whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing by Saudi agents last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Trump said, “maybe he did or maybe he didn’t!”
But the president indicated that US interests in Saudi oil production, weapons purchases and support for administration policies in the Middle East were more important than holding an ally to account, and he stressed the importance of staying in the kingdom’s good graces.
“They have been a great ally,” he said of the Saudis, and “the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner.” Speaking later to reporters as he left the White House for his Florida resort, Trump said, “I’m not going to destroy our economy by being foolish with Saudi Arabia".
Trump’s defense of Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have denied knowledge of the operation while acknowledging that its agents carried it out, marks another instance when he has sided with the personal assurances of an autocrat over the analysis of his own intelligence officials.
