Corker Blasts Trump Support of Saudi Prince

Saudi ambassador brother of crown prince returns to Washington

Khashoggi murder: CIA chief Haspel 'to brief Congress'


Still, senators on both sides of the aisle, after a closed-door Central Intelligence Agency briefing this week by Director Gina Haspel, said they had no doubts.

Trump has brushed aside the murder, affirming that the kingdom is a "great ally" to the U.S. He also argued that supporting the kingdom would be putting "America first". Senator Lindsey Graham, (Republican from South Carolina), introduced a resolution on Wednesday that would call bin Salman "complicit" in the slaying.

Graham said he wanted to make two statements in all of the legislative flurry around Saudi Arabia, "That MBS is complicit (in the Khashoggi killing) and a wrecking ball and that we're going to do something about it - and that means suspending arms sales and support for Yemen".

Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2 by a team of 15 people consisting of Saudi officials who arrived in Turkey for his murder and a cover-up operation, including dismembering Khashoggi's body.

"I think the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State are in a bad spot because the president has given this bear hug to MBS and to the entire Saudi regime, so they are bound to carry out his freakish policy", Murphy said during a "Morning Joe" interview.


Associate Provost Richard Lester, who led the review, criticized Saudi Arabia's role in the killing, along with its "repressive policies" in other areas, but he said none of the institutions MIT works with had any role in Khashoggi's death.

That measure is meant to hold the Saudi crown prince "accountable" for contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, a blockade of Qatar, the jailing of dissidents and Khashoggi's death but it imposes no penalties on Riyadh.


He also said he expected a vote in the Senate next week on a war powers resolution to stop United States support for the war in Yemen, which has produced one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Corker said he has suggested some changes to the legislation to Menendez, who is the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel. The president has said he is not certain that MBS killed Khashoggi, and his secretaries of Defense and State told reporters last week that there is no definitive proof the Saudi crown prince is to blame.

There have been growing calls in the U.S. for Congress to take a strong stance against the Saudi crown prince, amid the White House's apparent refusal to implicate bin Salman, a close Trump ally, in the murder. He has touted Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars to the US and recently thanked Saudi Arabia for plunging oil prices.

They "knew that there was no way this murder happened without the consent and direction of MBS", Murphy told MSNBC, using the abbreviation for Prince Mohammed.


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