Well, doesn't that figure. That will certainly work with Trump's media apologists. Apologists for Trump is a thriving industry in conservative circles. Daily, they make up or distort facts to excuse their amoral leader....
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/a...ld_be_core_issues_for_america_138400.amp.html
"There is a strategy behind the administration's see-no-evil indulgence. Trump and his aides want a rich, powerful, well-armed Saudi Arabia to lead a coalition of Arab nations in confronting and constraining Iran and forging new, less hostile relationships with Israel. Trump is also fixated on the benefit to U.S. industry of increased arms purchases by the Saudis.
These reasonable-sounding goals have been shown to be naive and unrealistic. The Saudis are throwing their weight around in ways that make the region more unstable, not less. Salman has done nothing to make it politically feasible for other Arab governments to publicly come to terms with Israel. And the "$110 billion" in arms sales that Trump boasts about is largely a mirage.
Worst of all, Trump has abdicated moral leadership on what should be core issues for any U.S. administration. For at least a century, we have -- at least publicly -- stood for universal human rights. We have stood for democracy. We have stood for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
We have not always lived up to those ideals -- I covered Chile under dictator Augusto Pinochet, who took power in a U.S.-backed coup -- but no president has refused to even pay lip service to human rights principles, as Trump does. And when governments have killed innocent civilians or imprisoned dissidents or squelched independent media voices, U.S. administrations have reacted forcefully with both words and deeds.
The United States is more than a set of national interests. It is a set of ideas that have inspired seekers of freedom throughout the world. Ronald Reagan made a difference when he went to Berlin and demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall." Trump, apparently, would have offered to sell the Soviet leader more concrete and barbed wire.
Trump's reaction to Khashoggi's apparent assassination has been stomach-turning and disgraceful, but we have heard admirably honest and tough words from Republican senators such as Bob Corker of Tennessee, Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Now we'll see if they -- for once -- take any meaningful action to uphold American ideals. I'm not holding my breath.
I don't know if the president could have said or done anything that would have kept the Saudis from horrifically taking Jamal Khashoggi's life. But I do know that Trump didn't even try."