We need an international investigation, perhaps overseen by the United Nations, of what happened to Jamal. In the United States, we also must investigate whether Saudis bought influence with spending that benefited the Trump family, such as $270,000 spent as of early 2017 by a lobbying firm for Saudi Arabia at the Trump hotel in Washington. The Washington Post reported that Saudi bookings at Trump Chicago increased 169 percent from the first half of 2016 to the first half of this year, and that the general manager of a Trump hotel in New York told investors that revenues rose partly because of “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.”
While it is always prudent to follow the money there might be another reason for Trump's indifference - his contempt for the media. Let us not forget that Trump has repeatedly labelled the press "an enemy of the people." As I have asked previously, if the media is our enemy then what does that make ISIS?
In light of these events, let me now pose this question. Given that Trump has this contemptible view of the media, why would he care if another country saw fit to assassinate a journalist? After all, when Trump was reminded by Joe Scarborough of Vladimir Putin's penchant for murdering journalists in December 2015, Trump famously replied, "Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe."
I believe Trump admires Putin for killing journalists. I also believe Trump admires Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for evidently having done the same to Khashoggi. To Trump, this is getting things done.
With this in mind, I strongly suspect that Trump wishes he could do the same to Jim Acosta, Cecilia Vega and numerous other journalists in this country who dare to question him. I have a bad feeling that such a day might arrive soon.
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