The U.S President Donald Trump has criticized the global uproar over Saudi Arabia’s suspected role in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He compared the situation to the media storm surrounding the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump said in an interview, “Here we go again with you are guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned”.
Trump, again and again, maintained his support for his Supreme Court pick. It is noteworthy that several women came forward to blame Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, but he denied all the allegations. Trump informed the AP, “I have to find out what happened”. He suggested that he was giving Saudi Arabia more leeway than other U.S allies. Trump has spoken to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the current week. He said that both had denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi, who has not been seen since he entered their country’s consulate in Istanbul 2 weeks ago.
On Tuesday, a high-level Turkish official informed the AP that police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate and they had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there. The U.S President said that his own comment on Monday about possible “rogue killers” behind Khashoggi’s disappearance was informed by his “feeling” from his conversation with Salman and that the King didn’t use the term. The U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also met with the king and crown prince in Riyadh. He said that the kingdom had made a serious commitment to hold senior leaders and officials accountable if involved in the death of Khashoggi. Trump said that he is hopeful the Saudis’ own investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi would be concluded in less than a week.