CNN NatSec Analyst Calls Out Trump’s Response to Pensacola Shooting, Questions Why He ‘Bends Over Backward a Million Times’ to Defend Saudi Arabia
CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem called out President Donald Trump’s subdued response to news that a Saudi Air Force officer was responsible for killing three victims and wounding several more at a mass shooting on a Pensacola naval base on Friday.
Trump addressed the attack and also posted two Tweets, both purportedly repeating a conversation he had with the leader of the Middle Eastern country in the wake of the shooting. In them, Trump said Saudi Arabia’s King Salman expressed his “sincere condolences” and reiterated that the attacker did not represent “the Saudi people who love the American people.”
Speaking with OutFront host Erin Burnett, Kayyem noted Trump’s curiously helpful conduct toward the country.
“The president sort of went out of his way to essentially do everything but apologize that the Saudis had to apologize, right?” Kayyem noted. “In other words, at the very least, given the situation with the Saudis right now. you just keep quiet because we don’t know what is going on yet, and yet the president sort of felt compelled to offer this olive branch.”
Burnett then drew a comparison between Trump’s comments today and his similarly tepid response to the Saudi Arabian government’s 2018 assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. After the roots of that assassination were found to reach high into the Saudi government, Trump disputed the CIA’s findings to side with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who claimed he had no knowledge of the murderous plot.
“Going against his own intelligence agencies there,” Burnett reminded her viewers, “But those two statements are quite similar.”
“They are, and this just gets to the question of motivation and always with this president when it comes to the Saudis, when it comes to the Russians, and it starts to get tiresome after a while,” Kayyem said. “It would one thing for the president to say simply: ‘Of course, that he does not represent all of Saudi Arabia, neither would a Mexican would represent all of Mexico.’ But you always sort of wonder, given the economic situation between the Trump family and the Saudis, why he bends over backward a million times to defend Saudi Arabia’s egregious behavior.”
Kayyem was alluding to several reports that have detailed the Trump family’s lucrative relationships with member of the Saudi royal family as well as its government.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
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