Biden Fist Bump with MBS Completes His Saudi Humiliation; Tough Talking Joe Once Vowed to Make Arab Kingdom a “Pariah”

Biden Fist Bump with MBS Completes His Saudi Humiliation; Tough Talking Joe Once Vowed to Make Arab Kingdom a “Pariah”

Joe Biden, who in 2019 vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” nation over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump in Jeddah Friday, despite a U.S. intelligence report that MBS was behind the 2018 murder of Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Biden is visiting Saudi Arabia to beg the Saudis to pump more oil to bail him out of his self-created U.S. energy crisis.

Biden’s arrival at the Al Salam Royal Palace for meetings with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and MBS was broadcast for the world to see Biden’s humiliation. For good measure, the Saudi government released a close-up of the fist bump and a photo of a grinning MBS during a meeting with Biden.

The incompetent Biden communications team had put out word at the beginning of Biden’s Middle East trip this week to Israel and Saudi Arabia that Biden would not be shaking hands, an apparent way to avoid shaking hands with MBS. But Biden blew that narrative up by shaking hands with officials in Israel, ABC News reported (excerpt):

It’s the handshake that the White House doesn’t want to talk about.

For weeks, the question of whether President Joe Biden will shake Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s hand when he visits Saudi Arabia this week has hounded officials reluctant for the president to be seen warming up to the man the U.S. believes is responsible for a journalist’s murder.

…And White House officials have even suggested Biden would avoid physical contact on his Middle East trip because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re going to try to minimize contact as much as possible,” White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Wednesday.

But that plan fell apart almost immediately when Biden landed shortly after in Tel Aviv and both embraced and shook hands with officials there.

The president himself did not respond to ABC News when asked Tuesday whether he’d shake the crown prince’s hand.

Biden talked tough about Saudi Arabia at a 2019 Democrat presidential debate (excerpt via The Intercept):

FOREIGN POLICY took center stage in Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, with former Vice President Joe Biden saying he would not sell weapons to Saudi Arabia — marking a sharp contrast with the Obama administration — and stressing he would make the Saudis “pay the price” for their killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

“I would make it very clear we were not going to in fact sell more weapons to them,” Biden said. “We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.” Biden also said there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia,” and, in reference to Yemen, said he would end “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in and murdering children.”

A ceasefire in Yemen has been in effect for the past several months.

New York Times reporter Peter Baker reported Biden was greeted at the Jeddah airport by a lower level official than was President Trump who was greeted by the king on his 2017 trip, “Biden arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he receives a polite but perfunctory two-minute welcome on the tarmac from the governor of Mecca and ambassador to the U.S., unlike when Trump came in 2017 and was greeted enthusiastically at the airport by King Salman.”

Baker also added some color reporting on the fist bump seen round the world:

“MBS meets Biden at the door of the palace and the two men exchange a brief fist bump. The unsmiling prince then leads the president inside…As soon as Biden got out of the car and saw MBS waiting, he immediately put his fist out making clear it would not be a handshake.”

UPDATE: Biden and MBS ignored reporters’ questions at a pool spray, “Biden and MBS ignored two shouted questions from the US press pool: will you apologize to Khashoggi’s family and is Saudi Arabia still a pariah. per @jendeben in Jeddah”

The Saudi government released photos of Biden and MBS:

Saudi government video of Biden and MBS fist bumping their respective delegations. As he fist bumps his way down the line as MBS makes introductions, one can almost hear Biden saying to MBS, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

The post Biden Fist Bump with MBS Completes His Saudi Humiliation; Tough Talking Joe Once Vowed to Make Arab Kingdom a “Pariah” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Kristinn Taylor

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