Trump criticizes Saudi Arabia for covering up Khashoggi’s death

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Saudi Arabia, saying that they orchestrated a “cover-up” of the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but declaring that he will leave to Congress the possible US response in the matter.

“They had a very bad original concept. It was carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups,” said Trump in the Oval Office in response to a reporter’s question about how the killing could have occurred.

“Whoever thought of that idea, I think is in big trouble. And they should be in big trouble,” the president said, referring to the presumed plan to murder Khashoggi. Trump also said that there must be some kind of sanction imposed on those responsible for what occurred, although he would leave it to Congress to decide exactly what that should entail.

The president reiterated, however, that he is not inclined to restrict arms sales to Riyadh because “Russia, China and France” will quickly take advantage of the opportunity to sell their own weapons to Riyadh if the US refuses to do so. The president did not say if he shared the conclusion of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Tuesday called Khashoggi’s killing “premeditated.”