Trump doesn’t care about dead reporters
by digby
It appears that Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post op-ed writerJamal Khashoogi was killed in the Saudi embassy in Turkey last week. It also apears that the US knew there was a plot to kidnap him and it’s unclear if they warned him which they are required to do by law.
Trump obviously doesn’t really give a damn. He pretends to be “concerned” but makes one excuse after another as to why he has no intention of doing anything about it, saying that he doesn’t want to endanger the sale of lethal military equipment to the country and suggesting because he isn’t an American citizen and it happened in another country it isn’t any of our business.
Earlier during the press availability, Trump was unable to describe what exactly the U.S. is doing to investigate the apparent death of Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, beyond saying, “we are looking at it, we are looking at it very strongly.” He characterized Khashoggi’s potential murder as “a terrible thing, assuming it happened.”
Asked about the possibility of punishing Saudi Arabia, Trump made clear that he prioritizes doing business with the country more than he does basic human rights.
His unctuous toady Lindsey Graham is a bit more overwrought:
That’s nice. But I think his Dear Leader has other ideas about this sort of thing:
“Well, I mean, it’s also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?” Scarborough asked.
“He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader,” Trump replied. “Unlike what we have in this country.”
“But again: He kills journalists that don’t agree with him,” Scarborough said.
The Republican presidential front-runner said there was “a lot of killing going on” around the world and then suggested that Scarborough had asked him a different question.
“I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know,” Trump replied. “There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that’s the way it is. But you didn’t ask me [that] question, you asked me a different question. So that’s fine.”
They knew he was an authoritarian reptile before they let him in.
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