York: Trump’s Clearly Made a Calculation That the Relationship with Saudi Arabia Is More Valuable Than Punishment for Khashoggi

EXCERPT:

YORK: "Trump can be amazingly frank about his reasons for doing things and he has clearly made a calculation that the relationship with Saudi Arabia is more valuable than inflicting any further punishment over the murder of Khashoggi. By the way, the United States has sanctioned 17 Saudis in relation to this, one of whom was fairly close to the Crown Prince. Trump comes out and he says Saudi Arabia is a vital ally in the war on terror, they spent $400 billion with us, $110 billion in military spending. That’s huge, that’s in our interest, I’m not going to get any further worked up about this murder. It’s an astonishing, sort of frank, realist kind of statement and I think even his supporters wish he could probably find more of a middle ground. I think John was kind of suggesting that, a more of a middle ground to take more into account. Human right issues involved, at the same time  still reaffirming the relationship between the U.S. and the Saudis."