Biden's Saudi trip draws more scrutiny
President noncommittal on discussing Khashoggi with MBS; Tammy Bruce and human rights attorney Brooke Goldstein react on 'Hannity'.
President Biden is being disingenuous about his proclaimed commitment to international human rights in a way that simultaneously advances his apparent mission to weaken America's global standing and domestic energy production, journalist and women's rights activist Tammy Bruce told Fox News on Thursday.
Biden has shown his top priority as president is to "keep his own country as weak as possible," Bruce said, amid rampant inflation, and energy sector turmoil observers say could be corrected with reversals of sweeping policy changes like the curbing of federal lands speculation.
Bruce noted Biden bristled at the suggestion he won't address the death of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi – whom some claim was at the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud – while he visits the kingdom in coming days:
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President Biden is slated to make his first trip since taking office to the oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia in July. (Composite)
"I will bring up – I always bring up human rights. I always bring up human rights. But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia and anywhere else, then they haven't been around for a while," Biden said Thursday.
Bruce suggested Biden is speaking what he means about the slain Saudi-American journalist, but that he will ignore his concerns in pursuit of his political goals – which she added are not for the benefit of the United States:
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"With Biden, everything is transactional. I believe that he meant that about Khashoggi. But now look at what he's willing to do in order to keep America weak. He is willing to go to a place that is known to be a horrific abuser of human rights, because his priority is to keep his own country as weak as possible," Bruce said.
"That speaks to the nature of Joe Biden in a way that I think should shock the conscience of everyone... We believe in human rights because we're America. We're not perfect. But when we talk about it, when we learn about it, when we care about it because we mean it."
Biden's "transaction" in this case is to purchase oil from Riyadh so he can continue preventing the wealth of American energy resources to be utilized, in order to signal to his left flank that he is committed to their "Green New Deal" agenda.
"This is transactional. He now wants something from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, even Russia; China, because it suits his purpose of keeping America in trouble," Bruce said.
Bin Salman has denied any link to Khashoggi's murder, telling the left-wing Atlantic magazine such an allegation "hurts me a lot."