Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, rebuked President Trump’s dismissal of the CIA’s “high confidence” determination that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder of Saudi dissent Jamal Khashoggi.
“I disagree with the president’s assessment. It’s inconsistent with the intelligence I’ve seen,” Lee said Sunday during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“Now look, I don’t have access to everything the president sees. I’m not sure what he’s relying on. Intelligence I’ve seen suggests that this was ordered by the crown prince, and is yet another reason why I’ve been pushing, why I joined forces with Bernie Sanders back in February, to get us out of fighting Saudi Arabia’s civil war effort in Yemen against the Houthis,” Lee continued, referring to Sanders, the independent from Vermont who caucuses with Senate Democrats.
After a Thanksgiving phone call to U.S. troops stationed overseas, Trump reiterated his support of Saudi Arabia during the ensuing controversy over Khashoggi’s disappearance. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of the Saudi royal family, was killed by an alleged Saudi hit squad on Oct. 2 when he visited his country’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee.
“They didn’t conclude. They did not come to a conclusion. They have feelings certain ways but they didn’t — I have the report,” Trump said of the CIA. “I don’t know if anybody is going to be able to conclude that the crown prince did it. But I will say this. I don’t know. I don’t know. But whether he did or whether he didn’t, he denies it vehemently. His father denies it, the king, vehemently.”
Lee is not the first Republican lawmaker to contradict Trump, who has repeatedly expressed sympathy toward the Saudi royal court’s denials of any link between it and Khashoggi’s death. Among the White House’s critics are retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an ally of the president.
[Opinion: Lindsey Graham and the Senate aren’t afraid to do the right thing on Saudi Arabia]
