Biden meekly gives Saudi crown prince 'one free murder' pass on Khashoggi

In 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden said this: "Jamal Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince. And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. There's very little social redeeming value of the — in the present government in Saudi Arabia ... they have to be held accountable."

Fast forward to late February 2021, when the Biden administration released an intelligence report on the matter. It declared that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

According to a New York Times report on Friday, Team Biden decided that, when push came to shove, there would no price for the Saudis to pay, as Biden had promised; no accountability for the pariah in any meaningful capacity. "A consensus developed inside the White House that the price of that breach, in Saudi cooperation on counterterrorism and in confronting Iran, was simply too high," the Times report reads.
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This sentiment was echoed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who word-saladed the administration's position by saying the administration will keep accountability as an "option" down the road, just in case the Saudi prince, commonly known as MBS, decides to whack another journalist who is critical of him.

"Our administration is focused on recalibrating the relationship," Psaki said. "And certainly there are areas where we will express concerns and leave open the option of accountability."

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