Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meeting with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman last week, replete with broad grins and obsequiously grateful press releases, struck a discordant note with many in the light of the meeting’s purpose: to suss out the details of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
According to a Sunday Vanity Fair report, the “grip and grin” particularly disturbed D.C.’s diplomatic and intelligence corps.
“Pompeo did not handle this well,” a former State Department official told Vanity Fair. “I don’t think it would have been difficult to be more somber in meetings and more nuanced in comments afterward.”
“Certainly from where I sit, it is discouraging to see the administration seemingly subordinate our values to other interests in such an egregious case,” a current State Department official added.
Pompeo is taking the lead from his boss, as President Donald Trump has shown extreme reluctance to punish bin Salman, with whom he and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are close.
Though Trump has tried to distance himself from the prince, he still sang his praises late Saturday in an interview with the Washington Post, praising bin Salman’s strength and “very good control.”
“I would love it if he wasn’t responsible,” Trump added of Khashoggi’s murder.
However, bin Salman’s distance from the event is getting harder and harder to believe, as reports surfaced Monday that multiple phone calls were made from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where Khashoggi died to the crown prince on the day of the murder.
What really struck me the other day when Nikki Haley made her comment of being Indian and Donald wanting to know if she was from the same tribe as Warren, is how fucking childish Donald is calling Warren a name like Pocahontas. And all the other middle school like nicknames he has for everyone. What a total fucking child.
“…it is discouraging to see the administration seemingly subordinate our values…”
Duh. Tell us how you REALLY think, ya mealy-mouthed milquetoast.
Get to the polls and vote like your life depended on it!
Why would they be disgusted… by now you would think they would have gotten the memo. WHO cares about what’s good for the country or the american people… all that matters is what is good for tRumps pocketbook, the goal is to actually make him a billionaire by the time he is out of office.
he still sang his praises late Saturday in an interview with the Washington Post, praising bin Salman’s strength and “very good control.”
I think it was Josh who said Trump’s superpower is to reveal others’ hypocrisy. Another administration would have said they condemn this outrageous act in the strongest possible terms blah blah and put in place some superficial retaliatory measures that monarchies don’t mind much because who cares what commoners say, let 'em talk. The status quo would be unchanged because face it, the Saudis have 268 billion barrels of oil and that gives them a lot of leverage. The cookie pushers are fuming because Trump just says “That would be bad if you’d actually done it, but you deny it and eh who can even know.” Not the thing one says, old boy, not the thing at all, at all.