Former Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron condemned Donald Trump for brushing off the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday while seated next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“Trump’s comments were a disgrace,” Baron told TheWrap in an email. “’Things happen,’ he said. Actually, someone made them happen. And that was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He had Jamal Khashoggi assassinated, and then he and his government lied about what happened.
The CIA concluded in 2018, during Trump’s first term in office, that bin Salman ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist at the Post, and a 2021 intelligence report also pointed blame at the Saudi Crown Prince, who has denied involvement. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist with legal residence in the United States, was killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey and his body was dismembered, a gruesome crime that drew global condemnation.
On Tuesday, Trump said that “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman,” regarding Khashoggi, and lashed out at the ABC News reporter, Mary Bruce, who raised the question about the killing, calling her network “fake news.”
Trump called Khashoggi “extremely controversial,” and said, “whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” referring to bin Salman.
“Trump couldn’t care less about the killing of a journalist unless he viewed that journalist as a supporter of his,” Baron continued. “In this instance, he suggests the killing was justified on the grounds that ‘a lot of people didn’t like’ Khashoggi. And then he ignores the facts of the brutal murder itself, suggesting MBS was clueless. Just when you think Trump has gone as low as possible, he goes still lower.
Baron said that “Trump and his family have made plenty of money off the Saudis” and “perhaps he’s thinking of what more can be made in years to come.”
“Regardless, his comments are immoral,” Baron continued. “That they were uttered by the president of the United States makes them especially reprehensible and deserves the harshest condemnation.”
On Tuesday, Bin Salman called Khashoggi’s death “painful” for Saudi Arabia and suggested the journalist lost his life “for no real purpose.” He spoke of having “improved our system to be sure that nothing like that happens.”
