WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump thanked Saudi Arabia for lower oil prices one day after announcing that the U.S. won't let the murder of a journalist jeopardize relations with the kingdom.
"Oil prices getting lower. Great!" Trump tweeted Wednesday from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., where he's spending Thanksgiving. "Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower!"
The Saudis boosted oil output this month, responding to demands from clients preparing for supply disruptions as the Trump administration moved to tighten sanctions on Iranian oil exports, according to industry executives.
The international crude benchmark has fallen under $65 per barrel from a four-year high of more than $86 in early October. However, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries could announce production cuts at its Dec. 6 meeting in Vienna, nudging prices upward.
Trump said Tuesday that he won't let the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi jeopardize U.S. relations with the Saudis because oil prices may "go through the roof" if the partnership between the two nations breaks.
In an unconventional statement, Trump said he would stand by Saudi Arabia regardless of whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's death. The kingdom's strategic importance, he argued, outweighs the "horrible crime" perpetrated against Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post and a critic of the crown prince.
"If we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof," Trump told reporters later Tuesday. He added that given the U.S. interests at stake, "It's a very simple equation for me."
That statement drew backlash from lawmakers in both parties, who spent weeks criticizing Khashoggi's murder and the crown prince's alleged role in it.
Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that he was "astounded" by Trump's statement and likened it to a news release for Saudi Arabia.
"It is a delicate situation when we have a long-term ally that we've had for decades, but we have a crown prince that I believe ordered the killing of a journalist," Corker told Chattanooga TV station WTVC in his home state of Tennessee. "We don't have a smoking gun. Everything points to the fact that he knew about it and directed it."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., denounced Trump's decision not to levy harsher penalties on Mohammed.
"While Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally, the behavior of the crown prince -- in multiple ways -- has shown disrespect for the relationship and made him, in my view, beyond toxic," Graham said. He added, "when we lose our moral voice, we lose our strongest asset."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump's decision, saying the U.S. has already placed sanctions on 17 Saudi officials suspected of involvement in the Oct. 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist, who had been critical of the royal family.
"We've sanctioned 17 people -- some of them very senior in the Saudi government," Pompeo said Wednesday in a radio interview with KCMO in Kansas City, Mo. "We are going to make sure that America always stands for human rights."
Members of both parties have accused Trump of ignoring U.S. intelligence that concluded, according to U.S. officials, that it was likely the crown prince ordered the killing. Several lawmakers have called on the CIA and other top intelligence agencies to publicly share what they told the president about the slaying.
In his statement Tuesday, Trump argued that punishing Saudi Arabia by "foolishly canceling" Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars to the U.S. would only benefit Russia and China. Critics, including high-ranking officials in other countries, accused Trump of ignoring human rights and giving Saudi Arabia a pass for economic reasons.
It's "America First," Trump said.
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii responded Wednesday on Twitter, writing: "Being Saudi Arabia's b**** is not 'America First.'"
"Congressional Republicans will have to do a gut check," Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Wednesday. "The Republican Party has believed for more than 50 years that morality was one of the reasons why the United States won the Cold War. And the president walked away from that."
Some lawmakers are already fighting back. Twenty-two members of the Senate -- 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats -- have triggered investigations into Khashoggi's death and specifically whether the crown prince was responsible. The investigations were requested under provisions of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The act requires the president to report back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee within 120 days -- in this case by Feb. 7 -- on whether the crown prince was responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture or other gross violation of internationally recognized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression and the administration's decision on whether sanctions are warranted.
Moreover, three Democrats and three Republicans, who say sanctions -- which include a ban on travel to the U.S. -- imposed so far are insufficient. They have introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2018. Among other things, the bill calls for suspending weapon sales to Saudi Arabia and imposing mandatory sanctions on all of those responsible for Khashoggi's death and those blocking humanitarian access to Yemen.
Before leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Trump didn't accept the counsel he received from Paul and Graham -- two Republicans often at odds on foreign policy.
Graham has said the crown prince is "irrational" and "unhinged" and warns there will be strong, bipartisan support in Congress for harsher sanctions against Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family.
Paul typically eschews U.S. intervention abroad, but he views Khashoggi's death as one in a long line of malign activities by Saudi Arabia topped by its war in neighboring Yemen where civilians are being killed by Saudi airstrikes.
"He's been hearing from both myself and from Lindsey Graham -- two different sides of the foreign policy spectrum -- and yet we get this," Paul said about Trump's statement in support of Saudi Arabia. "We really have to reconsider what we're doing."
Information for this article was contributed by Deb Riechmann, Matthew Lee, Maria Danilova and Lisa Mascaro of The Associated Press; and by Terrence Dopp and Alex Nussbaum of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/22/2018