Looking the Other Way

Trustworthy prince1

Jamal Khashoggi, for those who aren’t familiar, was a Saudi Arabian journalist who was living in the US in self imposed exile. He was concerned about his safety and welfare in relation to his critical articles of the Saudi Royal Family, especially the prince, Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS. On October 2, Khashoggi entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey and never walked out.  The prevailing theory, is that he was murdered and dismembered at the behest of MBS.  The Turkish government claims to have audio recordings of the event, and by all accounts, the allegations are credible.  Not surprising to anyone was how quickly Donald Trump was to defend the Saudi Royal Family.  It’s widely known that he admires them, their wealth, and their political foothold over Saudi Arabia.  So when he was quick to take MBS at his word that he had nothing to do with the murder, no one batted an eye.  But the problem is that when the President of the United States doesn’t take a firm action to this kind of grievous conduct, especially to a foreign pundit maintaining residence in our country, seeking safety in our borders, it sends a pretty loud message that the US doesn’t take care of it’s people when they step foot outside our borders.  I mean what would it take for Trump to condemn the Saudi Royal Family?  I think that’s the question we’re all sitting on at this point.

Scot Free

Presidential powers1

Piling on to the mountain of absurd statements that Rudy Giuliani has made in the past month, he recently told the Huffington Post that the President could theoretically murder someone and not get indicted.  So here’s the thing…I know that presidential lawyers like throwing around theoretical arguments about what the President can legally get away with under the constitution, but let’s be real, if Donald Trump killed a guy,  you can bet money that putting theory to into practice might be pretty darn difficult.  I’d be willing to bet that, sitting president or not, the DoJ would find a way to prosecute.  But that said, I wouldn’t put it past Trump to test the theory.