President Donald Trump criticized the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi and defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday after an ABC News reporter pressed the foreign leader on the 2018 murder, saying “things happen.”
A U.S. intelligence report released in 2021 confirmed that bin Salman approved a plot to murder Khashoggi in 2018. The Saudi leader has denied any connection to the death.
ABC News chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce pressed bin Salman on the murder during an Oval Office press availability, prompting Trump to interject.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it.”
More to come…
