Despite saying that he would make Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince
of Saudi Arabia a pariah over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden gave him a fist bump during his first visit to
the Middle East as president, met with Jamal.
I mean, excuse me, met with MBS, the crown prince, went to Israel went to the UAE.
And he is rightfully taking some heat for that, specifically from progressive
Democrats who are finally speaking out and criticizing their president.
And I just wanna play a couple of those critics.
Obviously we've got Bernie Sanders followed up by representative Ilhan Omar,
here is what Bernie had to say about that visit.
>> You've referred to Saudi Arabia as a brutal dictatorship that
crushes democracy, should Biden have gone?
>> No, I don't think so.
You have a leader of that country who was involved in
the murder of a Washington post journalist.
I don't think that type of government should be rewarded with
a visit by the President of the United States.
>> That type of government should not be rewarded with a visit.
Representative Ilhan Omar went even further understanding
the strategic importance of Saudi Arabia but
saying, look, this was honestly a win for the Saudis, take a look.
>> We have to be willing to take stances even if they
are difficult, >> [COUGH]
>> In doing the right thing.
We want to be a country that has moral standing when it comes to the defense
of human rights, as we've said with Ukraine and in other places.
And we have to be a country that is interested in advancing democracies.
And none of those things were accomplished with the strip,
none of those things are accomplished with the message, this trip sense.
And none of those things were accomplished with the smirk that the Saudis now have
on their face.
As they look at us as a country that is vulnerable and
willing to do anything to appease the Saudis.
>> So some pretty harsh words for the president and his trip but
when asked about that criticism, and specifically about
the fist bump with MBS, president Biden had this to say.
>> Yes.
>> You're coming under a lot of fire for your fist bump with the crown prince.
>> [LAUGH] >> I just want to give you a chance to
respond to that.
But also how can you be sure that another incident,
another murder like Jamal Khashoggi won't happen again.
>> God love you.
What a silly question.
How could I possibly be sure of any of that?
>> How could he possibly be sure he's just the president of the United States of
America with the largest military news.
He just sells weapons to the Saudis every single month.
How could he possibly assure that more human rights
violations won't happen in that country or the broader Middle East.
Before we go on to MBS, little clap back and more about that meeting,
Jake I just wanna get your thoughts on some of that criticism.
And Biden's response to the criticism.
>> Look, spine is so sad now.
And what's that laugh.
I mean, you fist bump with a guy who dismembered a journalist and
they ask you a very legitimate question about it and you do that forced laugh and
you call it silly.
It's not at all silly, perfectly good question.
A rare, good question from mainstream media.
So, of course, he's defensive about it.
But it's, he's weak and so he's gonna beg the Saudis, gonna beg the Israelis.
He's going to beg everyone.
And what can he do about it?
To your point, Francesca.
There's a million things you can do about it.
Cut off all the funding, the Saudi Arabia, etc etera.
But he's never gonna threaten any of that because he's weak.
So, I'm gonna make the most random point of all time.
Mohammed bin Salman.
No one ever talks about how physically ugly he is.
And I just wanna assure you that is a Middle Easterner.
I can tell you with great confidence.
It's not biased or anything like that.
That dude is ugly, okay?
Both outside and inside, all right?
Now, moving on back to relevant political points because the next one,
unfortunately is a doozy.
>> Yeah, I'm I just wanted to comment that like, look,
I'm glad that Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar speaking out about this.
We're talking about the Congress has voted to stop funding Saudi Arabia's
war on Yemen.
There's been bipartisan legislation in the senate spearheaded by Senator Sanders and
rand Paul of all people to also stop selling
weapons to the Saudis specifically for their ongoing war in Yemen,
that failed to pass the Senate did pass the house.
But just to say like, he is not out of step with not just Congress, but
he's out of step with the American people.
Many who also want to see the United States put more daylight between
themselves and Saudi Arabia.
But okay, let's give Biden credit.
He actually did raise the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the meeting.
He says here as reported by the New York Times,
I raised it at the top of the meeting,
making it clear what I thought at the time and what I think of it now.
Mr. Biden said I was straightforward in direct in discussing it.
I made my view crystal clear.
I said very straightforwardly for an American president to be silent on
an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am.
I always stand up for our values, okay?
I don't know why that doesn't sound that straightforward to me like, but anyway,
let's give him I guess the benefit of the doubt.
But the point is, the best part of all this story is MBS's response.
Now, mind you, president Biden just came from Israel.
In fact, it was a direct flight from Israel,
where he did not bring up the murder of another American journalist?
Shireen Abu Aqleh by the IDF, right?
So he doesn't mention that, brings up Jamal Khashoggi to MBS and here is well
let's just go to this site and then I'll go to more of what was actually said.
But here's the clip.
This is a spokesperson for the Saudi government explaining what happened.
>> The president raised the issue of Jamal Khashoggi at the beginning of
the meeting with Israel Highness, the Crown Prince.
And the Crown Prince responded that this was a painful episode for Saudi Arabia and
that it was a terrible mistake,
that the kingdom launched an investigation into this matter.
And that those who were accused were brought to trial and they were convicted.
>> So, the low level goons have been sentenced anyone who actually ordered
the killing probably still in office there, you have MBS right there.
But it went on from there.
So when the US president brought up soggy with the de facto Saudi rule on Friday.
The prince reportedly hit back accusing Washington of
hypocrisy by not investigating the killing of
Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh and for
allowing the abuse of inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
So, essentially you do this too bro.
And also, what about your boys over in Israel who did the same thing,
you didn't bring it up with them?
I thought you can't just suddenly bring it up with me.
And honestly, MBS has a little bit of a point if you're gonna consistently
you either bring up the murder of American journalist in my opinion.
Or you don't now MBS is like he's an evil MFER I don't give him any credit but
like at this point like, those are real issues that he brought up,
it doesn't make it okay, he's doing what about ism?
But it is just funny that he that, Biden is getting his
essentially being sort of moralized to buy another butcher.
>> Yeah, and what's not funny about it is that it's true.
And so, as you can tell, I'm not a big fan of the Saudi dynasty, right?
And their Muslim fundamentalist Muslim is the least relevant part of that sentence,
fundamentalist is the most relevant.
And they're dictators, they're brutal, they're murderers.
So, but in this case they're right.
So, Israel assassinated one of our journalists,
just like the Saudis did it.
I mean this is dead picking and totally irrelevant, but Jamal Khashoggi was
a columnist for the Washington, I don't think he was an American citizen.
Shireen was an American citizen.
And we didn't care.
In fact, we helped cover up her murder our government put out a statement saying yeah
okay, it was IDF bullets because they couldn't find a way to disagree with that.
They couldn't find a way to lie about that.
But they said that it was coincidental based on what evidence.
Total nonsense.
Everyone including all the way up to CNN,
I say that because it's mainstream media they never ever do this.
And so and I give them credit.
They're like no, it was it was clear there was no other gunfire anywhere.
It was aimed at her.
In fact, she had a helmet on.
They shot between the helmet and the body armor.
They shot her in a place where they can kill her and they shot directly at her.
No they murdered her.
>> Yeah. >> And Biden helped to cover that up.
So, I mean, I can go yell at Mohammed bin Salman about what a butcher he is.
But by new help the Israelis murder another journalist,
doesn't really have any legal or moral standing I should say.
And Abu Ghraib is right bunch of torturers.
Dick Cheney, George Bush and one of the Democrats do they cover that up?
Obama said we don't look backwards.
We look forward.
I'm never gonna get tired of that quote cuz of how ignorant it is.
I mean, not ignorant.
It's an obvious, such a preposterous lie and
all depressed about down and didn't question king Obama.
All crimes are in the past.
If you don't look backward, you will never have accountability for any crime.
What a preposterous thing to say, that was him saying I love Dick Cheney and
I'm gonna help covering up his torture.
So now we have no moral standing with the butchers in Riyadh.
So congratulations.
By the way to last random point to how weak Joe Biden is.
Rand Paul is having a debate with Mitch McConnell about whether we should give
funding to the Saudis.
Rand Paul blocked the right wing,
just judge that Biden was going to put on the federal bench.
As a favor to Mitch McConnell getting nothing back.
Because Rand Paul had another disagreeing with Mitch McConnell is internal
Republican politics buying so weak.
This the Democrats who control the house, the senate and
the White House have handed over the country to a debate between Rand Paul and
Mitch McConnell to two Republican senators from Kentucky.
>> Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And I just wanna say like obviously,
I think it is important to point out the hypocrisy of like look,
if you're not going to visit Saudi Arabia, which I think it was a win for the Saudis.
I think Ilhan Omar and and Bernie Sanders are absolutely right.
There is a smirk as Ilhan Omar said.
But it also raises this question if both of these regimes are not only killing
journalists.
But brutalizing the people of Yemen brutalizing the people of Palestine.
Like, then actually if you refuse to visit Saudi,
you should probably refuse to go to Israel as well.
So it is an important lesson.
And if you go to both and if you go all in, well, then you can't raise
one human rights issue with one country and not with the other.
And of course, all of this is again to sort of like make sure that Saudi Arabia
continues to pump oil out into the global market.
Please, please, please, no we won't mention it's okay.
We just mentioned it once and we'll never mentioned Jamal Khashoggi again.
Yes, US based but not American citizen.
Anyway, it is so sad that actually this president it's not the Obama legacy.
That's the difference.
It's the Trump legacy.
That's what Biden is doubling down on and that's what kills me the most.
>> All right, I'm just saying one last thing.
>> Yeah.
>> Despite doesn't know anything about politics, okay?
He got elected because the mainstream media declared him king.
So, if you go to talk to Mohammed bin Salman and you're absolutely
forced into that because of the details of the oil markets etc, etera.
Is that a conceivable situation?
It's conceivable.
But you have to go with massive sticks in your back pocket.
And you have to tell MBS listen, here's the deal we're gonna do and it sucks for
us and I hate it.
But I'm here and I gave you the fist bump, but you're gonna do.
But that's in return for XYZ.
But if you don't do that, I'm gonna invite you to an embassy and
I'm gonna break both your goddamn kneecaps.
And I'm gonna make sure that I pulverize your government.
And if you screw me you have no idea the hell the Saudi Arabia and
your stupid regime will be in, okay?
The chance of Biden doing that is zero.
And if you did that wouldn't work.
Of course,
it would work because he would then soil himself because I got news for you.
America is 1000 a million times stronger than Saudi Arabia or
Israel but we never act like it.
>> Yeah, yeah, that kind of language is reserved for corn pop Jake.
Just wanna let you know corn pop gets a talking to like that.