White House addresses ridicule over Biden's Saudi fist bump
NSC coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby defends the president's trip to the Middle East and conversations about Jamal Khashoggi’s death on ‘The Story with Martha MacCallum.’
A top White House adviser pushed back on ongoing criticism over President Biden's fist-bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, as well as belief he did not make an issue out of U.S. intelligence alleging the monarch is culpable in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden was the target of criticism from his own party in the wake of his fist bump with bin Salman, oft monikered as "MBS", with left-wing ABC host Sunny Hostin saying on "The View" he shouldn't "get a pass just because he's a Democrat."
In Congress, democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he doesn't believe the White House "should be maintaining a warm relationship with a dictatorship like that."
On Fox News, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said Biden made an issue of both Khashoggi's murder and the issue of Saudi oil exports amid the global energy crisis.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
"I can't speak for the Saudi foreign minister. I believe the foreign minister's comment was 'I didn't hear the president say that' -- That doesn't mean he didn't say it. He did," Kirby said.
"The president was very clear right upfront in the meeting. In fact, it was the first thing he said was about our concern, our continuing concern over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and about human rights in general in Saudi Arabia."
Kirby also rejected conjecture about Biden choosing to casually fist bump bin Salman, as he chose to shake hands with other leaders like those he met in Israel.
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People hold posters of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Oct. 2, 2020, marking the two-year anniversary of his death. ((AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File) )
Khashoggi's widowed fiancee Hatice Cengiz reacted to the fist bump by saying Biden will have "the blood of MBS' next victim on [his] hands."
Kirby noted Biden shook hands with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely because the two have had a longstanding "warm" but occasionally disagreeable relationship.
"It was a mix of both of them. I've got to tell you the president was not concerned about the greeting. He was concerned about the meeting," Kirby said.
The former Pentagon spokesman reiterated Biden is not afraid to say who he holds responsible for Khashoggi's death, nor to be open about his concerns about the state of human rights in the Saudi kingdom.
"The president was very clear about that," he said. "And then he went to the TV cameras after the meeting and and talked to press, took questions and made that same point to them."