|
Alyssa
Edling,
center,
and
Thomas
Malia,
second
from
right,
both
with PEN
America,
join
others
as they
hold
signs of
missing
journalist
Jamal
Khashoggi,
during a
news
conference
about
his
disappearance
in Saudi
Arabia,
on Oct.
10, in
front of
The
Washington
Post in
Washington.
(Jacquelyn
Martin/AP
Photo)
|
|
Conservatives
mount a
whisper
campaign
smearing
Khashoggi
in
defense
of Trump
By
Robert
Costa,
Karoun
Demirjian
Washington
Post
WASHINGTON
-
Hard-line
Republicans
and
conservative
commentators
are
mounting
a
whispering
campaign
against
Jamal
Khashoggi
that is
designed
to
protect
President
Trump
from
criticism
of his
handling
of the
dissident
journalist’s
alleged
murder
by
operatives
of Saudi
Arabia —
and
support
Trump’s
continued
aversion
to a
forceful
response
to the
oil-rich
desert
kingdom.
In
recent
days, a
cadre of
conservative
House
Republicans
allied
with
Trump
has been
privately
exchanging
articles
from
right-wing
outlets
that
fuel
suspicion
of
Khashoggi,
highlighting
his
association
with the
Muslim
Brotherhood
in his
youth
and
raising
conspiratorial
questions
about
his work
decades
ago as
an
embedded
reporter
covering
Osama
bin
Laden,
according
to four
GOP
officials
involved
in the
discussions
who were
not
authorized
to speak
publicly.
Those
aspersions
— which
many
lawmakers
have
been
wary of
stating
publicly
because
of the
political
risks of
doing so
— have
begun to
flare
into
public
view as
conservative
media
outlets
have
amplified
the
claims,
which
are
aimed in
part at
protecting
Trump as
he works
to
preserve
the
U.S.-Saudi
relationship
and
avoid
confronting
the
Saudis
on human
rights.
Subscribe
to the
Post
Most
newsletter:
Today’s
most
popular
stories
on The
Washington
Post
Trump’s
remarks
about
reporters
amid the
Khashoggi
fallout
have
inflamed
existing
tensions
between
his
allies
and the
media.
At a
Thursday
rally in
Montana,
Trump
openly
praised
Rep.
Greg
Gianforte
(R-Mont.)
for
assaulting
a
reporter
in his
bid for
Congress
last
year.
“Any
guy that
can do a
body
slam,
he’s my
kind of
— he’s
my guy,”
Trump
said.
Hours
earlier,
prominent
conservative
television
personalities
were
making
insinuations
about
Khashoggi’s
background.
“Khashoggi
was tied
to the
Muslim
Brotherhood,”
Fox News
anchor
Harris
Faulkner
asserted
on
Thursday’s
highly
rated
“Outnumbered”
show. “I
just put
it out
there
because
it is in
the
constellation
of
things
that are
being
talked
about.”
Faulkner
then
dismissed
another
guest
who
called
her
claim
“iffy.”
The
message
was
echoed
on the
campaign
trail.
Virginia
Republican
Corey A.
Stewart,
who is
challenging
Sen. Tim
Kaine
(D-Va.),
told a
local
radio
program
Thursday
that
“Khashoggi
was not
a good
guy
himself.”
While
Khashoggi
was once
sympathetic
to
Islamist
movements,
he moved
toward a
more
liberal,
secular
point of
view,
according
to
experts
on the
Middle
East who
have
tracked
his
career.
Khashoggi
knew bin
Laden in
the
1980s
and
1990s
during
the
civil
war in
Afghanistan,
but his
interactions
with bin
Laden
were as
a
journalist
with a
point of
view who
was
working
with a
prized
source.
Khashoggi,
a Saudi
citizen,
left his
home
country
last
year and
was
granted
residency
in the
United
States
by
federal
authorities.
He lived
in
Virginia
and
wrote
for The
Washington
Post.
Nevertheless,
the
smears
have
escalated.
Donald
Trump
Jr., the
president’s
eldest
son and
key
political
booster,shared
another
person’s
tweet
last
week
with his
millions
of
followers
that
included
a line
that
Khashoggi
was
“tooling
around
Afghanistan
with
Osama
bin
Laden”
in the
1980s,
even
though
the
context
was a
feature
story on
bin
Laden’s
activities.
A
Tuesday
broadcast
of
CR-TV, a
conservative
online
outlet
founded
by
populartalk-radio
host
Mark
Levin,
labeled
Khashoggi
a
“longtime
friend”
of
terrorists
and
claimed
without
evidence
that
Trump
was the
victim
of an
“insane”
media
conspiracy
to
tarnish
him. The
broadcast
has been
viewed
more
than
12,000
times.
The
conservative
push
comes as
Saudi
government
supporters
on
Twitter
have
sought
in a
propaganda
campaign
to
denigrate
Khashoggi
as a
supporter
of the
Muslim
Brotherhood,
an
Islamist
movement
once
tolerated
but now
outlawed
in Saudi
Arabia
as a
terrorist
organization.
“Trump
wants to
take a
soft
line, so
Trump
supporters
are
finding
excuses
for him
to take
it,”
said
William
Kristol,
a
conservative
Trump
critic.
“One of
those
excuses
is
attacking
the
person
who was
murdered.”
Several
Trump
administration
aides
are
aware of
the
Khashoggi
attacks
circulating
on
Capitol
Hill and
in
conservative
media,
the GOP
officials
said,
adding
that
aides
are
being
careful
to not
encourage
the
disparagement
but are
also
doing
little
to
contest
it.
The
GOP
officials
declined
to share
the
names of
the
lawmakers
and
others
who are
circulating
information
critical
of
Khashoggi
because
they
said
doing so
would
risk
exposing
them as
sources.
Fred
Hiatt,
The
Post’s
editorial
page
editor
who
published
Khashoggi’s
work,
sharply
criticized
the
false
and
distorted
claims
about
Khashoggi,
who is
feared
to have
been
killed
and
dismembered
by Saudi
operatives.
“As
anyone
knows
who knew
Jamal —
or read
his
columns
— he was
dedicated
to the
values
of free
speech
and open
debate.
He went
into
exile to
promote
those
values,
and now
he may
even
have
lost his
life for
his
dogged
determination
in their
defense,”
Hiatt
said in
a
statement.
“It may
not be
surprising
that
some
Saudi-inspired
trolls
are now
trying
to
distract
us from
the
crime by
smearing
Jamal.
It may
not even
be
surprising
to see a
few
Americans
joining
in. But
in both
cases it
is
reprehensible.”
Trump
said
Thursday
it
appears
Khashoggi
is dead
and
warned
that his
administration
could
consider
“very
severe”
measures
against
Saudi
Arabia,
which is
conducting
its own
self-investigation.
Treasury
Secretary
Steven
Mnuchin
also
announced
that he
would
not
attend
the
Future
Investment
Initiative
summit
in Saudi
Arabia
next
week,
delivering
the
Trump
administration’s
first
formal
rebuke
of Saudi
Arabia’s
royal
family.
“The
president
is
concerned.
He
believes
the
relationship
is
important,
so do I,
but he
also
understands
he’s a
leader
on the
world
stage
and
everybody
is
watching
and he
is very
concerned,”
said
Sen.
Lindsey
O.
Graham
(R-S.C.),
who met
with
Trump on
Thursday.
Trump,
whose
grip on
his
party
remains
strong
less
than
three
weeks
before
the
midterm
elections,
has seen
his
cautious
approach
to Saudi
Arabia
bolstered
not only
by the
maligning
of
Khashoggi,
but also
by a
conservative
media
infrastructure
that is
generally
wary of
traditional
news
organizations
and
establishment
Republicans.
As
criticism
of Trump
grows,
powerful
players
in that
orbit
have
stood by
the
president.
“Donald
Trump is
keeping
his eye
on the
ball,
keeping
his eye
on the
geopolitical
ball,
the
national
security
ball.
He’s not
going to
get
sidetracked
by what
happened
to a
journalist,
maybe,
in the
consulate
there.
He’s not
giving
cover to
anybody,”
syndicated
talk-radio
host
Rush
Limbaugh
said
Tuesday.
“For
those
who are
screaming
blood
for the
Saudis —
look,
these
people
are key
allies,”
evangelical
leader
Pat
Robertson
said
this
week.
“We’ve
got an
arms
deal
that
everybody
wanted a
piece
of.
. . .
It’ll be
a lot of
jobs, a
lot of
money
come to
our
coffers.
It’s not
something
you want
to blow
up
willy-nilly.”
Some
Republicans
on
Capitol
Hill, on
the
other
hand,
are
discussing
the
possibility
of
legislative
action
against
Saudi
Arabia
or other
ways to
lessen
U.S.
support.
Intelligence
community
officials
this
week
have
been
providing
continuous
briefings
on the
investigation
into
Khashoggi’s
disappearance
to the
intelligence
committees,
whose
members
enjoy
special
clearance
to view
and hear
sensitive
information.
But
in both
the
House
and
Senate,
lawmakers
without
such
clearance,
including
the
leading
Republicans
on
foreign
policy
matters,
have
grown
frustrated
with
what
many see
as a
deliberate
attempt
by the
Trump
administration
to
slow-walk
responses
to
congressional
requests
for
information
about
Khashoggi’s
disappearance,
or in
some
cases
ignore
lawmakers’
questions
outright.
Sen.
Bob
Corker
(R-Tenn.),
chairman
of the
Senate
Foreign
Relations
Committee,
and Sen.
Robert
Menendez
(D-N.J.)
have
taken
the step
of
invoking
the
Global
Magnitsky
Act to
force
Trump to
report
to
Congress
on
whether
people
should
face
sanctions
over
Khashoggi’s
alleged
death,
including
Saudi
Arabia’s
Crown
Prince
Mohammed
bin
Salman.
Yet
there
has been
little
confidence
among
senators
that
Trump
will
suddenly
feel
pressure
to
penalize
high-ranking
Saudi
officials
or take
other
sweeping
punitive
measures.
In
the
House, a
perceived
lack of
cooperation
from the
White
House on
Khashoggi
has
compelled
some
Republicans
to take
new
interest
in a
bill to
invoke
the War
Powers
Resolution
to
curtail
U.S.
military
support
for the
Saudi-led
coalition
operating
in
Yemen’s
civil
war. But
the
legislation
has not
secured
the
support
of
leading
Republicans.
Last
year,
the
House
voted
366 to
30 to
approve
a
nonbinding
resolution
stating
that the
United
States’
support
for the
Saudi-led
coalition
had not
been
congressionally
authorized
— an
effort
that did
not
rattle
the
administration,
which
continued
to build
its
relationships
with
Saudi
royalty.
Earlier
this
year,
the
Senate
failed
to enact
legislation
that
would
have
curtailed
U.S.
support
for the
Saudi
war
effort,
after
appeals
from
Saudi
officials
and
Defense
Secretary
Jim
Mattis
not to
pass the
measure.
|
|
|
|
|
|