Chris Wallace Confronts Psaki: Biden Said in 2019 He Believed MBS Ordered the Murder of Khashoggi, So Why Isn’t He Penalizing Him Directly?

Fox News’ Chris Wallace, in confronting White House press secretary Jen Psaki over Saudi Arabia, brought up how President Joe Biden — back when he was a candidate for office — pretty clearly said he believed that crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Back in 2019, Biden was asked during a presidential debate about the murder of Khashoggi, and very specifically about whether he would “punish senior Saudi leaders.”

“Yes,” Biden said. “Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince.”

So Wallace played part of Biden’s comments during that debate and asked Psaki if the president still believes that pretty unequivocal statement he made over a year ago.

“Does the president still believe, as he did back in November of 2019 that the crown prince was personally responsible, personally ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? And if he does, why didn’t he move to act against MBS personally?” he asked.

Psaki pointed to how Biden supported the release of the report with the U.S. intel conclusion about MBS’ culpability, bringing up the sanctions against others in connection with Khashoggi’s murder.

She called it a “clear message” to the world,” but Wallace said, “It isn’t a clear message.”

He again reviewed what Biden said in that debate, noted the intel report says the same thing, and again directly asked, “Does he personally believe that MBS ordered the assassination of Khashoggi? And if he does, why not penalize him? He sanctions a bunch of other people. He doesn’t sanction the crown prince.”

Psaki said that behind the scenes the Biden administration has conveyed U.S. relationship with Saudi will be different now.

“Historically though, as you all know, you’ve been covering these issues for some time, the United States has not historically sanctioned the leaders of countries where we have diplomatic relations or even some where we don’t have diplomatic relations,” she added. “We understand that’s a bar some are holding this to, but our objective here from the government, from the Biden administration, is preventing this from ever happening again.”

You can watch above, via Fox News Sunday.