“Fox and Friends” hosts broke from their usual pandering to administration officials and pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the administration’s response to the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi on Wednesday morning.
But the State Department head refused to break with the administration’s stance on the murder, despite calls from Republican lawmakers to hold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for his role in the killing.
“But Mr. Secretary they’re the ones who are putting it in peril, not us,” host Brian Kilmeade said. “They’re the ones who have evidently pulled this off and when you have people like Lindsey Graham, hardly an enemy of the White House and Bob Corker and others said this is a smoking saw not a smoking gun. And you even have audiotapes. We know that the prince knows, right? You know — you looked him in the eye. You know that he knows.”
“I have spoken to the king, King Salman, I have spoken to the crown prince a number of times since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and it is absolutely America’s intent to hold everyone accountable who was responsible for this,” Pompeo said.
“So that’s yes, when you looked him in the eye and he denied it. Did you believe him?” Kilmeade pressed.
Pompeo responded saying the administration is primarily interested in keeping America “protected.” Co-host Ainsley Earhardt even stepped in, suggesting that “someone has the pay the price,” especially given how “brutal” the audio tapes of the murder reportedly are.
Pompeo then suggested that some of the reporting on the CIA’s conclusions about the crown prince’s involvement in the murder was “inaccurate.”
"Fox and Friends" kind of tries to press Pompeo on Khashoggi murder pic.twitter.com/RstH7z7QGU
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 12, 2018
Republican lawmakers have not held back in their disagreement with the administration’s stance on murder and have said it is overwhelmingly clear that the crown prince had knowledge of the attack. The White House has repeatedly doubled down on its support for Saudi Arabia, citing economic deals between the U.S. and the kingdom and the Saudis’ role in tamping down Iran’s reach in the Middle East.
Pompeo looks pissed.
“It was my understanding there would be no journalism on this show …”
*Unless those people are women and children in Yemen.
This is literally the worst possible kind of corruption. The Trumps make lucrative private arrangements with rich autorcrats in return for preferential treatment from the U.S. government, including looking the other way when the autocrats murder U.S. residents. And everyone knows it. Not even these hyper-partisan enablers can countenance taking it quite that far.
Think about this: Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, the highest diplomatic office in the country, is appearing on Fox and Friends. Appalling!
Of course he was getting ambushed in Fox & Friends. What’s next, being questioned by Barney?