For decades, part of the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia has included our inaction when it came to the atrocities and human rights violations on the part of the Kingdom due to its strategic placement in the region. It’s not something to be touted but it is what it is. Yet despite that and the apparent murder of a Washington Post columnist, the liberal media now calling for a different standard for President Trump.
To kick off NBC Nightly News on Monday, the network huffed about how Trump was walking the fine line with America’s partner. After noting reports suggesting the Saudis were preparing to admit to killing Jamal Khashoggi, anchor Lester Holt chided the President. “Word of the acknowledgment comes just hours after Trump seemed to accept Saudi denials of any involvement while speculating Khashoggi may have died at the hand of rogue killers,” he reported.
It was a suggestion parroted by chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell as she began her rebuke of the President: “President Trump, after calling the Saudi king today, seeming to buy his explanation that if Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey, the hit men were ‘rogue killers’, not working for the regime.”
She touted how Congress was now “demanding that the White House stop the Saudis from buying billions in U.S. weapons” in defiance of Trump, who said he was letting it go through to bring the money to America and bolster jobs.
Mitchell then willfully ignored America’s long history of overlooking Saudi Arabia’s atrocities and suggested it was a just a Trump thing. “Still, critics say the President ignores the Saudi's terrible human rights record: unlawful killings, torture, and arbitrary arrests,” she proclaimed.
“Just as he embraces a Rogues Gallery of dictators like Putin, Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey, even saying he ‘fell in love’ with Kim Jong-un,” she spat.
You know who else fell in love with the Kim regime? The liberal media during the 2018 Winter Olympics.
During the Olympic games hosted by South Korea, the liberal media swooned for North Korean propaganda master and gulag queen Kim Yo-jong. CNN touted how she was “stealing the show” and Reuters said she was winning “diplomatic gold.” NBC themselves actually downplayed the purpose of the creepy North Korean cheer squad. Everyone knew they were there as a propaganda tool but according to NBC’s Stephanie Gosk, that was just something “critics” were saying.
But that didn’t stop Mitchell from hyping a soundbite from Sunday’s 60 Minutes featuring Lesley Stahl lecturing Trump on North Korea:
STAHL: Presides over a cruel kingdom of repression, gulags, starvation, reports that he had his half-brother assassinated, slave labor, public executions. This is a guy you love?
TRUMP: I know all these things. I'm not a baby. I know all these things.
Mitchell wrapped up the segment by whining about how “Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has not canceled” the U.S.’s participation in a business summit in Saudi Arabia. Where was this concern about working with Saudi Arabia when President Obama partnered with the Kingdom to enter the Yemen Civil War, which has led to a massive humanitarian crisis?
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC Nightly News
October 15, 2018
7:01 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: Good evening everyone, there are breaking developments in the disappearance of The Washington Post columnist who vanished inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey two weeks ago. NBC News has learned tonight that the Saudi government is preparing to admit the death of Jamal Khashoggi as the result of an interrogation done wrong. Word of the acknowledgment comes just hours after Trump seemed to accept Saudi denials of any involvement while speculating Khashoggi may have died at the hand of rogue killers. Our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell has the late details.
[Cuts to video]
ANDREA MITCHELL: President Trump, after calling the Saudi king today, seeming to buy his explanation that if Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey, the hit men were “rogue killers”, not working for the regime.
(…)
MITCHELL: Congress now demanding that the White House stop the Saudis from buying billions in U.S. weapons. But Mr. Trump says that would hurt American workers. Still, critics say the President ignores the Saudi's terrible human rights record: unlawful killings, torture and arbitrary arrests. Just as he embraces a Rogues Gallery of dictators like Putin, Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey, even saying he “fell in love” with Kim Jong-un. Telling CBS's 60 Minutes:
LESLEY STAHL: Presides over a cruel kingdom of repression, gulags, starvation, reports that he had his half-brother assassinated, slave labor, public executions. This is a guy you love?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I know all these things. I'm not a baby. I know all these things.
[Cuts back to live]
MITCHELL: And tonight, more big names are dropping out of the crown prince's investor summit next week, but Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has not canceled. A spokesman telling NBC News tonight they will evaluate as information comes in this week.
