The View Co-Host Claims Biden Must Suck Up to the Saudis, Lest ‘They Run to Iran’ for Help
Geopolitically-aware watchers of The View got a surprise on Friday when co-host Sara Haines discussed her views on U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia.
The table was discussing LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed venture that has lured away several prominent golfers from the PGA Tour with eye-popping contracts. This weekend, the circuit is holding a tournament at Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The tournament is taking place about an hour away from Ground Zero, where a group of mostly Saudi hijackers took down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
There have been persistent questions about the Saudi government’s role and what it knew.
“This is solely about money and what infuriates me is when you are talking about a politician, a president, we have all the U.S. presidents going to Saudi Arabia,” Haines said. “That is not a friendly area, typically with allies. That is a stronghold position we’ve needed not only for energy and economics, but when we push Saudi Arabia away, they run to China or they run to Iran.”
The problem with this assessment is that Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in a sectarian religious struggle and have long jockeyed against each other for hegemony in the Middle East via several proxy wars in the region. Most infamously, the two are backing opposing sides in Yemen’s ongoing civil war.
As a major oil producer, Saudi Arabia has outsized influence in global affairs, but occasionally authors high-profile outrages. This month, President Joe Biden took heat for going to Saudi Arabia and greeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
“Both places are pivotal for international and global relations,” Haines continued. “So when you look at the fact that we’ve needed Saudi Arabia. A president, I can always forgive. What I can’t forget, again, is the money, and people like Tiger Woods turned it down and at this point, I know it’s life-changing, but these weren’t people struggling to put food on the table.”
Watch above via ABC.
