National Press Club Issues Blistering Condemnation of LIV Event at Trump Course: ‘Unsavory Attempt to Minimize the Grisly Bone-Saw Attack’ on Khashoggi

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A major press group slammed Saudi-backed LIV Golf for having an event at former President Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club, calling it an unsavory attempt to minimize the grisly bone-saw attack on former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi embassy in Turkey in October 2018. The United States has blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known as MBS, for being behind Khashoggi’s murder.

Ahead of the LIV golf tournament in Bedminster, New Jersey, an hour away from New York City, a site during 9/11, the National Press Club slammed the event this weekend. The condemnation included a reference to President Joe Biden fist-bumping MBS during his visit this month to Saudi Arabia.

In a long statement on Tuesday, the National Press Club said:

We are revolted by the way the Saudi-funded LIV enterprise has followed the fist bump in the desert by shoving themselves onto golf courses and television screens. We call on all Americans to see this unsavory attempt to minimize the grisly bone-saw attack on Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi for what it is – an attempt to sweep under the rug a brutal state-sponsored murder. We call on people of conscience to reject this tournament. Do not attend. Do not watch it on television. Let it fail.

That the tournament is being held at a course owned by former President Trump is, if possible, even more revolting. It reminds us that the former President bragged of distracting Congress from the murder, delaying the release of the final U.S. government report that concluded MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (and recipient of the fist-bump from President Biden) was most likely involved in planning and approving Jamal’s murder. And the tournament on the Trump course reminds us how Saudi Arabia finds ways to personally enrich Trump and his family – including $2 billion to his son-in-law.

We note that at one of LIV’s first news conferences their officials shouted down a question from an AP reporter and escorted him from the room saying that he was being rude. That is how the LIV episode started. They silenced the press. Again.

Finally, we note that LIV is currently seeking representation by a public relations firm to make the slaughter of a journalist more acceptable to the American public through golf. We call on public relations firms, many of whom employ former journalists, to reject this blood money. We understand that clients need representation, but it seems reasonable to draw the line at clients that use a bone saw on a journalist. We hope the prospective PR firm thinks very carefully before agreeing to work for LIV. Their association with LIV will define who they are and damage their carefully developed reputation. This will not be good for their other clients or their business. We suggest they stay on the fairway.

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