MBS denied ‘personal responsibility’ for Khashoggi killing after US-Saudi fist bump
President Biden said Friday that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman denied having any role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in a much-anticipated face-to-face meeting between the two leaders.
“With respect to the murder of Khashoggi,” Biden told reporters during hastily scheduled remarks in the city of Jeddah. “I raised it at the top of the meeting, making clear what I thought of it at the time, and what I think of it now.”
When asked about the response of the crown prince, commonly known as MBS, Biden said: “He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was. He said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible.”
It was impossible to know if the meeting unfolded how Biden described since the press corps were removed from the room before the talks got underway.
“Jamal Khashoggi, will you apologize to his family?” NBC reporter Peter Alexander shouted at MBS, who was seated opposite Biden along a long table at a royal palace in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
The crown prince smirked and Alexander tweeted that “a Saudi aide grabbed my arm tightly” after he asked the question, which went unanswered as reporters were ushered out..
Another journalist shouted, “President Biden, is Saudi Arabia still a pariah?” — a reference to Biden’s 2019 campaign vow to “make [Saudi leaders] in fact the pariah that they are.”
US reporters fumed Friday that Biden’s team had arranged for so little media access — forcing the American press corps to rely on propaganda photos of Biden’s arrival circulated by the Saudi government.
The White House also didn’t arrange for boom mics to be present for Biden’s opening remarks to MBS, meaning his words were inaudible before the meeting was closed to the press.
“The American journalists who cover the president were not brought into position to capture this image [of Biden arriving at the palace]. The Saudis blasted it out,” tweeted Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, who until earlier this month served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Portnoy, a leader in arguing against Biden-era press access restrictions, added in another tweet that “reporters were told by the [White House] that none of the boom mics pool technicians use to record the president’s voice would be permitted inside the meeting with MBS. As a result, the recordings contain no discernible audio of what they discussed.”
The White House had not initially planned for Biden to speak with reporters during his two-day sojourn in Saudi Arabia. Friday evening’s remarks were a late addition to the schedule as the president was hammered by activists and lawmakers of both parties for offering MBS a fist bump as Biden arrived.
The 36-year-old crown prince appeared unfazed by Biden’s informal but still cordial greeting and he and Biden were seen smiling while walking together through the building.
The White House reportedly planned for Biden to only give fist bumps during his two-country Mideast tour as a way to wriggle out of looking too chummy with MBS.
Administration officials claimed the president was to avoid physical contact due to fear of catching COVID-19 during the trip — only for the commander-in-chief to generously distribute handshakes in Israel before again shaking hands after arriving in Jeddah.
The visit was meant to thaw Biden’s relationship with Saudi leaders after he initially sought to sideline MBS over human rights abuses — including the murder of Khashoggi, who was living in Virginia at the time of his death.
The US intelligence community assessed that the crown prince ordered the operation that killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan sidestepped a reporter’s question about criticism of the trip from Khashoggi’s fiancee, including her request for information about the location of his remains. Turkish officials say his body was dismembered using a bonesaw.
“He is going to have a conversation on fundamental issues of human rights in Saudi Arabia — and the specifics of that. I’m not gonna go beyond where he was yesterday,” Sullivan said on Air Force One en route to Jeddah.
Biden on Thursday also ducked a press conference question about Khashoggi.
“With regard to the question you asked me, my views on Khashoggi have — they’ve been absolutely, positively clear. And I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,” Biden said.
The evasive answer recalled then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s claims that Biden didn’t mention the US wanting information on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic during a 3 1/2-hour virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last year because Xi already knew Biden wanted transparency.
Biden later claimed to The Post that he did raise the matter with Xi, but that his staff were unaware because they weren’t in the room.
