Joe Biden pushed back against criticism of his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, telling reporters that he raised the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi “at the top” of their meeting.
But Biden faced criticism of an image that preceded the meeting in Jeddah, when he gave a fist bump to the crown prince.
Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of the Post, called the fist bump “worse than a handshake” and “shameful.”
(Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP)
“It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking,” Ryan said.
In his remarks to reporters, Biden was asked about what Khashoggi’s fiance’s reaction to Biden’s meeting, in which she said that the “blood of MBS’s next victim is on” Biden’s hands. Her tweet noted that Biden promised accountability for Khashoggi’s murder when he was running for president.
“I’m sorry she feels that way,” Biden said. “I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today.”
Biden said that when he brought up Khashoggi’s murder, MBS “basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated at that point that he was. He said that he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible. Then I went on to talk more about … dealing with any opposition to the criticism of the Saudi administration in other countries.” He said that he viewed it as a violation of human rights.
Biden laughed when a reporter asked him about the image of the fist bump, which has drawn criticism even from fellow Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote on Twitter, “If we ever needed a visual reminder of the continuing grip oil-rich autocrats have on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, we got it today. One fist bump is worth a thousand words.”
“How can you be sure that another incident, another murder like Jamal Khashoggi won’t happen again?” the reporter asked.
Biden responded, “God love you. What a silly question. How can I possibly be sure of any of that? I just made it clear. If anything occurs like that again, they’ll get that response and much more.”
Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, was murdered in October, 2018, after he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey and then disappeared. A month after his death, the Post reported that CIA concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
