re: Biden’s fist bump with MBS was a crass betrayal

Fresno CA

Description

In 2020, Biden vowed that he would outdo then-President Donald Trump by taking the moral high ground on Saudi Arabia, specifically declaring that he would hold MBS accountable for Jamal’s murder. Now, however, the images of a grinning Biden sitting with Mohammed bin Salman make our president look like a desperate supplicant forced to kiss the ring of a mafia boss. In a world in which Donald Trump is president, it can be hard to remember scandals that happened two years ago, let alone last week. But try, if you can, to recall the incident in which journalist, U.S. resident, and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was kidnapped and dismembered via bone saw, allegedly on the order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump let Prince Mohammed get a way with it, because the kingdom bought some weapons from the U.S. and the guy was bros with Jared Kushner. (Also, because he has a fondness for dictators.) While you’re recollecting, also remember that Trump continued to defend the de facto Saudi leader even after Saudi Arabia admitted the killing was premeditated and the CIA separately concluded the prince directed the murder. (The prince, naturally, denies the whole thing.) All in all, it was a pretty messed up situation, even for a guy who muses about dating his own daughter. Also messed up? That Trump apparently boasted about helping bin Salman get away with the whole thing. And it has been reported recently that Trump has rented out one of his golf courses to the Saudis golf consortium in spite of the fact that it was the Saudis who supplied the hijackers who crashed passenger jets into the WTC towers back in 2001. Liz Cheney said it best, you cannot defend the indefensible.