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Trump Says He Believes Khashoggi Is Dead

HeadlineOct 19, 2018

After weeks of defending Saudi Arabia, President Trump said Thursday that he believes Khashoggi is dead, and acknowledged allegations against the Saudis.

Reporter: “Do you believe Jamal Khashoggi is dead?

President Donald Trump: “It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad. It certainly looks that way.”

Reporter: “What are you considering for possible consequences for Saudi, based on those—”

President Donald Trump: “Well, it’ll have to be very severe. I mean, it’s bad, bad stuff. But we’ll see what happens.”

The New York Times reports that Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has advised Trump to defend the crown prince despite mounting evidence against Saudi Arabia. The United States received a $100 million payment from Saudi Arabia Tuesday, the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman in Saudi Arabia. One U.S. official said, “The timing of this is no coincidence.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend the upcoming Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia. Others who have pulled out of the event include the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, top executives from JPMorgan Chase, Uber, Ford, BlackRock, Blackstone Group and The New York Times, and every other major Western news media organization. Meanwhile, it is believed that there was a car accident in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and one of the 15 hit men was killed. We’ll have more on the latest in the Jamal Khashoggi case after headlines.

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