Watching members of the wretched core interviewed on their world outlooks as they stand patiently in line for a Trump rally is always good for a laugh…or cry. Of course, by now it’s a fairly meaningless exercise since their thinking doesn’t evolve, so what you knew about Trumpie sensibilities three months ago will be what you understand today. Yet and still, millions of nihilists, immersed in a cult of personality devoted to dismantling US government, and democratic institutions, shouldn’t be ignored.
If you went up and down the line in Erie, PA Wednesday asking anyone and everyone what their feelings on the Khashoggi matter were, It is a certainty you’d face an unbroken wall of blank stares. Preferred news sources of Trump loyalists have been slow on the uptake regarding the Saudi journalist’s disappearance, so there is near zero chance rally goers know Khashoggi from an Italian hoagie. Yet and still, this story has legs and details will leech into Youngstown soon enough; Trumpie reactions then will of course reflect the White House take, and that will be enlightening, and probably depressing.
Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist employed by the Washington Post, and a US resident. A conscientious critic of the Saudi Royal Family, Khashoggi long believed, with very good reason, returning to his homeland was not a good idea if he fancied staying above ground. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, his now accepted moniker throughout the world diplomatic community, the Trump Administration’s go to influencer in the region, recently made clear Khashoggi’s fears were warranted. Despite the journalist’s praise for recent dictates loosening the regime’s very repressive Wahabi Sunni inclinations, such as allowing women to drive, MBS has labeled Khashoggi a proponent of two Royal Family adversaries, the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar. Indeed, when Khashoggi disappeared last week after entering the Saudi Embassy in Turkey, all fingers pointed toward Riyadh.
The incident continues a disturbing pattern of authoritarian governments targeting journalists who run afoul of acceptable talktracks. The Saudi government joins Russia, Myanmar, Turkey, Syria and others who face credible accusations of intimidation and even murder of reporters deemed subversive by ruling parties. In the past the US response has been consistent and straightforward: going after the press is unacceptable behavior, equivalent to the worst human rights transgressions and always a top US priority to address and stop. But that was then and Trump is now.
The silence from the White House, even as it is becoming increasingly clear Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi team in Turkey, has been deafening. Jared Kushner, known to be close to MBS, has been reportedly pushing the Crown Prince for some explanation on the matter. The official White House position is facts are being gathered and a position will be forthcoming. Capital Hill is way ahead of them, promising a bipartisan push for sanctions against Riyadh once firm conclusions are drawn.
Of course the whole affair places Trump in a pickle, as he incites his rally attendees to spew venom at the press he literally keeps penned up. “These are some of the most evil people you’ve ever seen,” hisses the leader of the free world now three times a week. “They are the enemy of our country.” How do you denounce a regime for basically doing what you wish you could get away with? Who would actually take serious any condemnations on the subject from this Administration?
The fact that Khashoggi works for the “dishonest” Washington Post adds yet another absurdity to the spectacle. The image of Trump stiltedly reading a statement condemning a regime he has fawned over since day one, on behalf of a man working for a paper he ceaselessly slanders, speaks directly to the grievous injuries our moral authority has suffered in less than just two years.
Fact is there is nothing this President can say regarding freedom of the press that anyone in the world would take seriously. Think about that. In October of 2016, if a journalist came under attack in a foreign country, the US President would be expected to make a forceful statement rendered fully credible by his office’s full respect and protection of our press. Nothing else can suffice. Without it we are simply hypocrites to be ignored or disdained. Now, two years later, that is exactly what we are. The only difference between Trump and MBS is one can carry out what the other wishes he could but can’t… at least right now. Give it time. BC