When President Joe Biden screws up, he deserves to be called out just like any other American president. He had already generated considerable controversy with his hat-in-hand visit to Saudi Arabia during the summer to plead for more oil production to ease pressure on oil prices. The valid question at the time was whether Biden was doing it in a sincere effort to help American motorists or to deprive his Republican critics’ of a major point of attack heading into the fall election season.
Either way, the visit entailed a high-profile meeting with the de facto Saudi leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Biden had promised to hold accountable for the 2018 murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The full public extent of Biden’s get-tough accountability gestures consisted of a punishing fist-bump greeting with the crown prince. A full-blown handshake was seen as giving people the wrong idea that things were all cordial and friendly.
The Khashoggi murder occurred inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where the journalist and contributing columnist for The Washington Post had gone to finish paperwork for his upcoming marriage. His fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside as Khashoggi entered the consulate. He never emerged. Henchmen who U.S. intelligence concluded were working on the crown prince’s orders killed Khashoggi then dismembered his body, Mafia-style.
