Here is a shining example of how craven the Republican party is these days. Even in the face of Senators from their own party expressing horror that Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered on orders of the Saudi Arabian crown prince, leaving "a smoking saw" behind, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) shrugged it all off.
“We have to have a relationship with players we don’t agree with,” Stewart told CNN anchor Brianna Keilar, as if there were no middle ground in which accountability and relationships could meet. “Journalists disappear all over the country. 20 have been killed in Mexico. You don’t think it happens in Turkey and China? Of course it does. We have to have a relationship with these countries.”
Well, yes. So why is it that in this one single case, there's no space for accountability AND a relationship, I wonder. Stewart, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, should know better. By now one would assume he's gotten a lot of the facts around this horrendous, inhuman, brutal violation of human rights, you'd think.
Brianna Keilar wasn't content to leave the discussion there, asking Stewart whether there should be a commitment to telling the truth.
“It seems like what is bothering the senators, bipartisan among them including folks who supported Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration is that the Trump administration turned a blind eye to the facts,” she observed.
Stewart's response to Keilar's observation was telling. He grew angry, and started spewing Trump's talking points, even though senators in his very own party came out just today and said they had no doubt that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered brutally inside an embassy where he was lured to his death.
Echoing Dear Leader's talking points, Stewart exclaimed, “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
His final declaration made it clear he values the Saudi regime over Americans: ”We’re with Saudi Arabia. We’re staying with Saudi Arabia.”
Despicable. Utterly, totally despicable, especially coming from a United States Congressman with access to the same knowledge his colleagues have. Just horrible.
