Jake Tapper Is Brutally Skeptical of Chris Coons’ Defense of Biden on Saudi Crown Prince: ‘Senator, First of All…’
CNN’s Jake Tapper was not buying what Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) was selling about President Joe Biden on Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia where he fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who U.S. intelligence says ordered the murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. As a presidential candidate, Biden said he would turn Bin Salman into a “pariah.”
After the fist bump, Biden eventually delivered a speech and took questions. The president said he made “his view clear” about the killing to bin Salman.
Tapper asked Coons about the scene.
“Senator, I want to start with your reaction to what President Biden said he told the Saudi crown prince,” said the CNN host. “Was that enough, do you think?”
Coons replied by saying he was “encouraged” by Biden’s response:
I’m encouraged that President Biden directly and right at the front of that meeting raised his grave concerns. He said this both as a candidate and as president, that he sees that the conduct of MBS and the role of the Saudi kingdom in this particular brutal killing was beyond the pale, was despicable.
And I would expect that we will continue to balance advocating our core principles around human rights with the sustained partnership with the Saudis that is critical for us to sustain the unity of the West that President Biden has played such a central role in pulling together in the months since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Tapper responded by noting Biden’s extremely overt posturing against the Saudi regime when he was running for president. The tone of the anchor’s voice was not charitable, to say the least:
So, senator, first of all, Joe Biden, when he was running for president, he said he was going to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah nation, ok? He said he was going to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah nation.
He flew to Saudi Arabia, and he fist-bumped Mohammed bin Salman, the man responsible, according to Biden’s own director of national intelligence, for ordering a brutal murder of a Washington Post journalist, killing him and then dismembering him with a bone saw. I mean, that fist bump photograph, I think a lot of Americans saw that and were revolted by it.
Coons responded by pivoting to Ukraine and stated the U.S. needed to mend relations with the Saudis in order to “replace Russian oil and gas in the coming months” and that Biden “made a tough choice.”
“Given the situation we’re in in the world today,” Coons continued, “given what changed on February 24th [when Russia invaded Ukraine], given what we all know about the ongoing murders, the brutal killing of innocent civilians happening every single day in Ukraine, I support our president.”
Tapper responded by reading a tweet from Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz, who said Khashoggi would have tweeted, “Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’s next victim is on your hands.”
What Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today: pic.twitter.com/Gv4Up7TLgd
— Hatice Cengiz / خديجة (@mercan_resifi) July 15, 2022
“What do you say to her?” Tapper asked.
“I hope I have a chance to talk with her directly,” Coons answered, before reiterating that Biden had made “a hard choice,” but is trying “to sustain his commitment to human rights.”
Watch above via CNN.
