“Things happen.”
That was how President Trump described the murder of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday afternoon while sitting beside Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi ruler whom the C.I.A. believes approved the killing.
In an Oval Office meeting full of news-making moments, that comment by Mr. Trump was perhaps the most astonishing one, and it came just a few moments after he opened up the room to questions.
It was the ABC News journalist Mary Bruce who asked about the finding by U.S. intelligence officials that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. “Your royal highness,” she said, turning to Prince Mohammed, “the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust—”
At that moment, the president cut in, his voice vibrating with anger.
“Who are you with?” he demanded to know.
The earlier part of Ms. Bruce’s question, which had been directed at Mr. Trump, concerned his family’s business entanglements in Saudi Arabia. He brushed off those ethics concerns (“I have nothing to do with the family business”) and then addressed the question about Mr. Khashoggi.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the murdered columnist. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him, or didn’t like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
The crown prince spoke more like a politician, condemning the 9/11 attacks and Osama Bin Laden. Then he turned to the question about Mr. Khashoggi. “About the journalist,” Prince Mohammed said, going on to give a lengthy answer, casting it as “a huge mistake” that the kingdom never wants to happen again.
Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed said, “did all the right steps” to investigate Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
Mr. Trump’s concerns were different.
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” he said to the reporter.
The crown prince had not been on U.S. soil since March 2018, about seven months before Mr. Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. During the Biden administration, U.S. intelligence officials released a report determining that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing, but the White House declined to take direct action against him.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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