When Joe Biden was just a candidate, he vowed to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah that they are”. . .
BIDEN, 2020: We're gonna make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are"
BIDEN, 2022: We're gonna beg Saudi Arabia for oil pic.twitter.com/pDVS6g1Q1G
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 15, 2022
. . . yet he’s headed to the pariah nation to beg for oil and trying to sping it as just an “international meeting.” Here’s the president on how he will handle the murder of WaPo journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the trip, which the Biden administration determined was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS):
“The same way I’ve been handling it. I’m not going to meet with MBS. I’m going to an international meeting and he’s going to be part of it…”
Watch for yourself:
President Biden on how he will handle Khashoggi killing during Saudi Arabia trip: "The same way I've been handling it. I'm not going to meet with MBS. I'm going to an international meeting and he's going to be part of it…" pic.twitter.com/mD2cKtRAM2
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 17, 2022
But Axios’ Jonathan Swan isn’t buying the president’s BS and issued this brutal fact check of the spin:
“No. The truth: 1. President Biden came into office calling MBS a ‘pariah.’ 2. MBS didn’t like this. 3. Biden suffered domestic political pain driven, in part, by energy inflation. 4. Biden officials privately sucked up to MBS & the president changed his tune.”
No. The truth:
1. President Biden came into office calling MBS a “pariah.”
2. MBS didn’t like this.
3. Biden suffered domestic political pain driven, in part, by energy inflation.
4. Biden officials privately sucked up to MBS & the president changed his tune. https://t.co/Wr2FFc1lOB— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) June 17, 2022
Good luck trying to get that interview!
If I am ever allowed to interview President Biden, his Saudi policy is one of the topics I would like to ask him about!
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) June 17, 2022
It appears that Biden also pissed off the families of 9/11 victims with the trip:
Families of 9/11 victims recently wrote a letter to voice their unhappiness about this trip https://t.co/sUTcpxZGhZ
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 17, 2022
Add Saudi “dissidents and rights groups” to the list, too:
"A betrayal," – Saudi dissidents and rights groups say that Biden's visit to the Kingdom in July is unlikely to yield results, making the price of a handshake with MBS far too high for little return. My piece for @guardian https://t.co/TA5YaLm1BM
— Ruth Michaelson (@msrmichaelson) June 17, 2022
Now, this defense of Biden — that the United States “doesn’t need the House of Saud” until “it does” — would fly if . . .
Yes but energy is not the entire story. It’s just the one that the public and poltics always keys in on.
US-Saudi defense and intel is as important, if not more so. As is Saudi’s role vs Iran. Until the United States can find a way it doesn’t need the House of Saud… it does. https://t.co/fxcUKiIfXV
— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) June 17, 2022
. . . if Biden didn’t already know that when he made the “pariah” comments as a candidate. In fact, he “knew all that, more intimately than perhaps any recent presidential candidate”:
But Biden knew all that, more intimately than perhaps any recent presidential candidate.
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) June 17, 2022
But, hey, the 2020 line was really good when he was going after the bad orange man!
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