Trump's Indefensible Defense of Saudi Arabia Is Aimed at Congress

November 20, 2018 -- In response to a statement from President Trump in support of Saudi Arabia, which came ahead of a vote expected in the Senate as soon as next week on whether or not to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, Jon Rainwater, Executive Director of Peace Action, released the following statement:

"By attempting to whitewash the Saudi Royals' crimes, the President is making himself into a sort of 'accessory after the fact' to Mr. Khashoggi's grizzly murder. The statement reads more like one of the President's 5am tweets than an official White House statement. The statement slyly attacks a murdered man's reputation by parroting Saudi talking points that refer to him as an 'enemy of the state,' then papers over Saudi Arabia's disproportionate responsibility for creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen. U.S. support for the war has made us complicit in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians and a campaign that relies on starvation as its deadliest weapon. The U.S. is a party to the bloodshed in Yemen, and this statement tells us that President Trump intends to keep it that way.

"This statement was a clear shot across the bow of Congress ahead of upcoming votes on whether or not to end the U.S. role in Saudi Arabia's disastrous war in Yemen. Presidential tantrums notwithstanding, members of Congress need to dust off their moral compasses and finally vote to extricate the U.S. from this man-made catastrophe in Yemen."