Joe Biden has often tried to pretend he’s a tough guy who’s not to be messed with. During the 2020 campaign, he humorously claimed that Putin didn’t want him to be president because he was the only candidate who’d ever “gone toe-to-toe with him.”
Biden has similarly talked a lot of tough talk about Saudi Arabia and even called the Saudi kingdom a global “pariah” due to its poor human rights record and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. And then, of course, he went over to Saudi Arabi this week, fist-bumped with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and maybe even had a little sleepover, for all we know.
Perhaps to Biden’s credit, he claimed in a press conference that he brought up Khashoggi’s murder.
“He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was,” Biden said.
Biden says he raised Jamal Khashoggi's murder with Crown Prime Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Saudi Arabia today.
"He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was."
Read more: https://t.co/Say6NFdWmd pic.twitter.com/N3FjvmU9ar
— Axios (@axios) July 15, 2022
Regardless of whether you believe Biden’s account of the words exchanged, they were a far cry from his tough rhetoric during the campaign. Yet, for the puppetmasters at the White House, Biden’s words may have been a little too tough. So, the handlers went full Orwell and edited the official White House transcript.
Biden was asked today about MBS’s response to his comments on Khashoggi.
Video shows he said: “He basically said he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated that I thought he was.”
White House transcript wrongly claims Biden said: “I indicated that he *probably* was.” https://t.co/BXrt7eghqz pic.twitter.com/4LfRi9ZCTF
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 16, 2022
Honestly, I don’t believe Biden’s version or the White House version. Let’s not forget why Biden is even in Saudi Arabia in the first place: he wants their oil. Does anyone really believe Biden, whose approval ratings are in the toilet at home yet who still refuses to tap into domestic oil resources, would dare tell MBS that he thinks he’s a murderer? Or even a kind-of-sort-of-probably-maybe-but-not-really a murderer? Please.
Related: WATCH: Biden Glitched so Badly During His Interview That Jimmy Kimmel Had to Cut to a Commercial
Biden’s objective is to lower gas prices without domestic drilling, nothing more. That’s why he backtracked on making MBS “a pariah,” that’s why he fist-bumped MBS upon arrival, and that’s why there’s no reason to believe Biden’s account of what happened between them. We can’t prove what Biden said in his meeting, but we do have proof that the White House falsified the transcript—something that they’ve made a habit of.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member