President Donald Trump said Wednesday that “we cannot let this happen,” after being asked about Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and suspected murder on Oct. 2, when Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but never exited.
“We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anybody,” Trump said, after confirming “we want to bring [Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz] to the White House.”
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday night, citing an unnamed person familiar with the information, that before Khashoggi’s disappearance, American intelligence personnel “intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him,” in the Post’s words.
Turkish officials have anonymously accused Saudi Arabia of a planned murder of the prominent journalist and dissident. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Turkish officials believed a 15-member Saudi team dismembered Khashoggi’s body with a bone saw after murdering him within a couple hours of his entering the consulate.
"We want to get to the bottom of it," Trump says of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and possible murder. pic.twitter.com/W8MpjWSS8T
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 10, 2018