On Sunday's ABC's THIS WEEK, Rep. Peter King immediately attacked President Obama when asked what sort of repercussions the Saudis should face over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The New York Republican congressman took the #WhatAboutYou meme conservatives have been using to defend Trump from many of his outlandish remarks and actions to a new level of myopia.
Rep. King was joined by Rep. Adam Schiff, who are both on the House Intelligence Committee (Yes, it's still around) to discuss what should be done following the Saudi admission that they killed the Washington Post's Jamal Khashoggi.
Adam Schiff began by saying the Saudi account was "not credible" at all.
Rep. Schiff said, "I think this ought to be a relationship altering event for the US and Saudi Arabia, that we ought to suspend military sales, we ought to suspend certain security assistance and we ought to impose sanctions on any of those that were directly involved in this murder. This really ought to be something that causes us to do a reexamination of our relationship with Saudi Arabia."
Rep. King also believed the Saudi story was bogus, but then took a weird turn into the Trump-zone.
He immediately brought up President Obama's relationship with Saudi Arabia and complained about a bill letting US families sue the Saudis over the 9/11 attacks.
King said all presidents form relationships with them and they do provide valuable intelligence, but "what happened here was savagery."
Rep. Schiff outlined strong measures that could be taken to "send a message to the crown prince that we’re not going to tolerate the murder of journalists."
Stephanopoulos said, "Other Democrats, Congressman King, have said part of the reason for that is that the Trump organization, the Trump family is actually profiting from their ties to the Saudis. Should the president release all information related to his financial ties to the Saudi kingdom?"
Trump bragged about the money Saudis have spent on his properties during the presidential campaign so it would be nice to see Trump's tax returns to see what actual connections he has with the Saudi, but still refuses to release them.
Rep. King replied by not wanting to inject partisanship into it and then injected partisanship into it. Instead of discussing the issue at hand, the murder of Khashoggi, he veered off into attacking President Obama, again.
King said, "Well, first of all, I think it’s wrong to inject partisanship in this right now. Nobody was more supportive of the Saudis than President Obama. The large arms deals under President Obama. He fought us tooth and nail, attacked the Congress when we allowed 9/11 families to sue the Saudis. He went out of his way to shield the Saudis. To be making these type of allegations against the president -- if you want to do it three or four months from now, do it. "
He continued his assault on Obama and like after every deadly school shooting, wanted more time to pass before we take any actions. I was shocked he didn't offer thoughts and prayers.
"But the fact is right now the president is in a very delicate diplomatic spot, the same as President Obama was. And I think at least for this, let’s have a certain timeout when it comes to making the partisan shots. Let’s deal with it on the merits (ph). What Saudi Arabia did was savage, was evil, to be condemned, but let’s not be questioning the motives of our president right now. He should be the president of all the people at this moment. When the dust settles, their people can make the allegations they want. But again, I just go back to the -- the heat that I took in the Obama administration when I was fighting for 9/11 families to sue the Saudis."
"And that’s the only time during the Obama administration that Congress was able to override his veto. But that’s how strongly he felt about shielding the Saudis."
I'm sure Kellyanne Conway blew kisses at the television screen as she watched Rep. King obfuscate the topic to shield Trump.
