Jake Tapper Destroys Biden For Determining ‘Thug’ Mohammed Bin Salman Has Immunity: You’re Letting Him ‘Get Away With Murder’
CNN’s Jake Tapper blasted President Joe Biden for his administration’s determination that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has immunity over his role in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.
Tapper concluded State of the Union on Sunday by focusing on the news that the Department of Justice determined bin Salman has immunity in the lawsuit that Khashoggi’s wife, Hatice Cengiz, seeks to bring against him. The CNN anchor noted the DOJ arrived at the determination the crown prince has immunity as a sitting head of government despite the Biden Administration’s acknowledgment that he was responsible for Khashoggi’s death by approving the operation that resulted in the Washington Post columnist’s murder.
In the past, Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” on the world stage over the killing, and “we are going to, in fact, make them pay the price” for Salman’s actions. Thus, Tapper recapped how Biden wound up caving on this hawkishness with renewed arms sales, friendly encounters with Salman, and negotiations with Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ in order to lower gas prices, with less-than-stellar results.
The Washington Post accused Biden of failing to stand up for freedom of the press while giving Salman “a license to kill” political dissidents. Tapper added to that denouncement by saying that the Biden administration’s walkback on making the Saudis a “pariah” adds to the U.S’s “long and shameful history” of ignoring the country’s human rights abuses.
A few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that MBS “mocks President Biden in private, making fun of the 79-year-old’s gaffes and questioning his mental acuity,” according to people inside the Saudi government. Nothing gets leaked by the Saudi government to The Wall Street Journal without MBS signing off on it, President Biden.
What are you — what are we — getting in exchange for letting this thug get away with murder, Mr. President? Other than the stink of complicity?
Watch above via CNN.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story erroneously stated that the Biden administration granted bin Salman immunity. It determined that bin Salman had immunity under international law.
