CNN’s Jake Tapper called out President Joe Biden on Friday for not sanctioning Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman directly over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, given how the Biden administration released an intel report that concluded the crown prince ordered the operation.

A report on Biden’s decision indicated concerns about how going after MBS directly would affect the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, and in the past few days several administration officials have tried to defend the decision.

Tapper followed up Monday as he noted again the Biden administration is “making excuses about why they are not directly holding the Saudi crown prince, MBS, directly responsible.”

He played comments from White House press secretary Jen Psaki before noting Biden’s own 2019 comments about holding MBS accountable.

CNN’s Phil Mattingly said based on conversations he’s had with officials, it’s clear “there was never any real effort to sanction” MBS.

He noted the White House “has made the calculation that Saudi Arabia is a crucial geopolitical ally and therefore they’re not willing to take that step despite what President Biden said on the campaign trail.”

Tapper closed the segment by remarking, “They’re such an ally, maybe they should stop killing our journalists.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

Former CIA director John Brennan expressed dismay at his fellow white males for their incessant grievance mongering and fact-challenged complaints at the annual CPAC conference over the past weekend.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Brennan offered up his apparently serious demographic shame in response to former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) calling out the event’s mostly white, male audience indulging in victimology and obsessing over “cancel culture.”

After host Nicolle Wallace asked the senator why CPAC attendees were so adamant about rewriting history about the Capitol insurrection on January 6th.

“Because they want to be the victims, not the perpetrators,” McCaskill replied. “I have never seen so many whiny white men calling themselves victims as I saw over the weekend at CPAC. These are all people that think they have a huge grievance from a position of significant privilege.”

McCaskill then hit at a number of false claims pushed during the Florida event, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) speculating that Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down a request for readying National Guard reinforcements in the days before January 6th.

“So it has really become the norm for the new Republican Party that lying is just peachy keen,” she concluded. “I can’t believe the majority of America is going to accept that especially if we remain vigilant about pointing out what the facts are.”

In addition, CPAC 2021 also featured former President Donald Trump, who continued to push his “big lie” election fraud conspiracy. What’s more, one of Trump’s former campaign aides complained about the GOP’s “era of the lovable loser,”  the crowd railed against being mandated to wear masks indoors, and some CPAC speakers unleashed outrage over the alleged cancellation of The Muppets — which was factually incorrect — and the gender-less rebranding of the Mr. Potato Head toy line.

“To Claire’s point, I’m increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days with what I see other white males say,” a deadpan Brennan said in response, prompting an outburst of laughter from the MSNBC host.

“With very few exceptions, like [Sen.] Mitt Romney, [Rep.] Liz Cheney, [Rep.] Adam Kinzinger, there are so few Republicans in Congress who value truth, honesty, and integrity,” Brennan continued. “So they’ll continue to gaslight the country the way Donald Trump did. The fact this has such security and safety implications for the American public and for the members of Congress, again, as Claire said, it is just a disgusting display of craven politics that should have no place in the United States in 2021.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) called Monday for House Democrats to hold a hearing on “cancel culture,” calling it a “serious threat to fundamental free speech rights.”

“Our shared commitment to free speech principles is eroding under demands for the censorship and silencing of certain speech,” Jordan wrote in a letter, addressed to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

“College campuses have canceled lectures because students disagree with the speaker,” Jordan added. “An editor for America’s newspaper of record was forced to resign for publishing an opinion piece by a Republican senator with which the newsroom disagreed. Amazon has refused to sell books reflecting certain political views, and Twitter and Facebook have censored and de-platformed prominent conservatives.”

He also cited a recent effort by two House Democrats, California Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, to pressure cable companies into dropping conservative news networks including Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News. The duo sent a letter to cable companies including AT&T and Verizon last month demanding to know whether they had any plans to drop the networks.

“Cancel culture is a dangerous phenomenon whether you agree or disagree with the views being censored,” Jordan opined. “If cancel culture continues unchallenged, it is not just the unpopular controversial viewpoints that are at risk.”

“Cancel culture’s long-term consequence to our democracy and our constitutional framework are serious and substantial,” he added. “We must fight this trend before it is too late… There is no better issue on which Republican and Democrats can work together… than to address the scourge of cancel culture in the United States.”