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Donald Trump Puts A Price Tag On Murder

Trump said he wasn't excusing Saudi Arabia's murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but since the Saudis buy so many products from America, it's okay.

By John Amato
06/24/19 05:14 am

Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pressed Donald Trump on his reactions to the death of Jamal Khashoggi and whether he would hold those accountable for the crime:

CHUCK TODD: Are you going to -- The United Nations said they'd like the United States to order the FBI to investigate Jamal Khashoggi's death and possibly MBS’ -- "

Trump interrupted to falsely claim it has been heavily investigated already, but in truth, his administration did nothing in response to a foreign country murdering a US legal resident.

And then he pulled his usual trick of blaming everybody else to trying to get himself off the hook.

See, Iran is bad too!

DONALD TRUMP: Iran's killed many, many people a day. Other countries in the Middle East, this is a hostile place. This is a vicious, hostile place. If you're going to look at Saudi Arabia, look at Iran, look at other countries, I won't mention names, and take a look at what's happening. And then you go outside of the Middle East, and you take a look at what's happening with countries. Okay? And I only say they spend $400 to $450 billion over a period of time --

CHUCK TODD: So --

DONALD TRUMP: -- all money, all jobs, buying equipment --

CHUCK TODD: That's the price. As long as they keep buying --

DONALD TRUMP: No, no.

CHUCK TODD: -- you'll overlook some of this behavior.

DONALD TRUMP: But I'm not like a fool that says, 'We don't want to do business with them.' And by the way, if they don't do business with us, you know what they do? They'll do business with the Russians or with the Chinese. They will buy -- We make the best equipment in the world, but they will buy great equipment from Russia and from China. Chuck --

CHUCK TODD: Yeah. Alright.

DONALD TRUMP: Take their money. Take their money, Chuck.

There are multiple ways to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for murder. Donald Trump only thinks in terms of dollars and trade, therefore big trade dollars are the price Trump has put on the murder of US residents.

Would it be okay for a foreign country to murder his pal Steve Bannon and then pledge to buy billions of dollars of equipment from the U.S. if the Trump administration did nothing in response? That is what Donald Trump is telling the world. And given that the world is very familiar with MBS' cozy relationship with son-in-law Jared Kushner, a relationship filled with mutual business interests, Trump is specifically sending the message that he's willing to overlook all kinds of bad acts if it puts money in the accounts of his or his family.

And really, Trump's obsession with dollars is creepy.

He acts like the United States is an old miser putting pennies in jars and hoarding them.

The U.S. is selling out human rights when Donald Trump confesses that because Saudi Arabia spends money on our equipment, our diplomats should look the other way when the Saudis murder US residents or citizens.
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