Former State Dept. spokesperson Morgan Ortagus discusses the Biden administration’s response to the Saudi Arabia government’s role in the killing of Jamal Khaskoggi.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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new developments in the
new developments in the
killing of Jamal Khashoggi, with recently declassified White
recently declassified White
House reporting blaming saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Selman
for proving the murder
since two thousand and seventeen, the crown prince, has
had absolute control of making
the map security and
intelligence organizations
making it highly unlikely. Saudi
officials would have carried out
an operation of this nature
without the crown princes
authorization
here to react is former State
Department, spokesman, Morgan
Ortagus
that update pretty significant
revelation from that declassified material,
declassified material.
I want your reaction to the fact
the Democrats criticize the
Trump administration for being
too lenient on the Saudi Royal
family for human rights abuses.
When I look at the reaction of
the Biden administration to this
classified material, it does not
include anything directly
targeting the crown prince.
What is your reaction?
Theres a lot to one fact, but
when it comes to Saudi Arabia,
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin
Selman, he did do an interview
with CBS, where he accepted
responsibility. By saying the
fact he was the head of the
security organization. Anyone
paying attention to this story for the past few years knew
for the past few years, knew
there was involvement on his
part and he accepted
responsibility. So now you have
to say going forward. Is the
Biden administrations response
appropriate?
They sanctions were individuals,
sanctions at the State
Department under MIKE Pompeo, and
incredibly important for whether
a republican or Democrat
Administration for the United
States of America to say we will
not tolerate journalists around
the world being harassed,
intimidated, imprisoned, jailed
killed for the work that they
do.
That is really incredibly
important standard.
We talked about this under MIKE
Pompeo and the Biden administration is doing it as
administration is doing it as
well.
It is a nuanced discussion about
what we do going forward with
Saudi Arabia, secretary of state
and the relationship with Saudi
Arabia is bigger than one
individual, and that is right.
So much is on the line. The
United States has a lot of
interest in Saudi Arabia, but
there are those just like when
the Trump Administration was in
power, with the Biden
Administration in power, saying
weve got to havave
accountability.
This up and saying Mohammed Bin
Selman is guilty of murder.
Biden should not give him a pass.
What should we do when it comes
to this admission?
Politically speaking, the
Biden administration is getting
hit from the left because he did
not go far enough.
We have to look around the world
and realize, like literacy, a
record of imprisoning
journalists
in Asia. Saudi Arabia is not the
only country where this
happened.
I think the sanctions on the
security services are important,
saying that the Biden
Administration, the human rights
abuses in China in foreign
policy does not black and white.
There are shades of gray, we have to deal with and the Washington
to deal with, and the Washington
Post editorial is a little bit
wrong in the accusations that
Saudi Arabia should find a new
crown prince the United States
isnt in the business of telling
foreign countries who their
leaders should be your shouldnt
be, but we have to hold people
and regimes accountable, and
there are human rights abuses.
We have to be able to hold
people accountable, while also
balancing competing interests.
There is the issue of living up
to your own standards.
After the airstrikes, it came up
how the Biden administration
reacted when they were not in
power.
Jen psaki in twenty seventeen said what is
the legal authority for strikes?
Assad is a brutal dictator, but
Syria is a sovereign country and
Joe Biden almost a year and a
half ago discussing Donald
trumps. Recent actions in Syria
and his erratic impulsive
decisions endanger our troops
and make us all less safe.
This week, the threat level on US
contractors and military
personnel in the Middle EAST was
raised because of airstrikes by
the Biden administration
that sends accountability to the
standard. We were talking about,
it seems the Biden
administration is not living up
to the standard they set
themselves.
We see the politicization of
foreign policy in a way that is
not constructive, and that is
exactly what you just talked
about
for the four years of the Trump
administration. We use the same
legal authority, the Biden
administration is using to hold,
but IRAN accountable
troops in Iraq, whatever our
diplomats are threatened by Shia
militia groups, which are
trained, funded quote by IRAN.
The United States of America
must hold IRAN and its proxies
accountable,
im supportive of the strike, and
I wish we wouldnt publicize
foreign policy, which is what
happened under the Trump
administration
when we politicize that we
criticize every decision. The
president makes this because
hes, not a member of our party,
it was frustrating to see that
and, as the Biden administration
makes a decision I agree with. It
is important to go after
terrorists important to go
after the regime in IRAN, but I
said this yesterday on Fox on
outnumbered. We need a strategy from the Biden administration
from the Biden administration.
Yes, you should respond. You
should protect american troops,
but if the iranian regime knows
that was us get piles of cash
again or the Biden
administration is going to rush
back into the JCP a you are
never really totally holding
them accountable.
We had a maximum economic
pressure campaign against IRAN,
encourage the Biden
administration to let the
american people know what the
strategy is supportive of the
strike yesterday, but more than
that to containers regime.
These are complicated issues
with competing interests and
principles.
Thank you for me. Talk about
it
to six respect to the idea when
looking at these, we should think.
Transcript generated on 2021-03-08.