MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday took aim at Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for claiming there is no "smoking gun" that ties Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder of dissident journalist and American resident Jamal Khashoggi.
Earlier in November, the Washington Post reported that the Central Intelligence Agency concluded that the crown prince did in fact order Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul -- an assessment Donald Trump and others in his administration have downplayed.
After the Post reported on the assessment, the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News agency reported that the CIA had heard a "smoking gun phone call" where MBS was recorded allegedly instructing a subordinate to "silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible."
Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) noted that the curious absence of CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats at a Senate briefing about Khashoggi may not have been coincidental.
"I think this really speaks to this administration and the president in particular knowing that had Gina Haspel showed up, DNI Coats showed up, they would have had to say perhaps under oath that they know exactly what happened to Jamal Khashoggi," Edwards said. "And the administration doesn't want that."
Wallace too noted that the response from some of the president's intelligence chiefs seemed bizarre.
"Sec. Mattis and I have to think [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo also understand that's not how intelligence works," she said. "This is not a Tom Clancy novel. There is no smoking gun. The intelligence community makes an assessment based on the evidence and information and, you know, what they know. And their knowledge of the regime."
Trump, Wallace noted, continues to "resist" the apparent truth in the Khashoggi matter because it would implicate his ally MBS.
"He's willing to say that MBS denied doing so and is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance," Princeton Professor Ellie Glaude said. "What we see here over and over, whether it's [national security adviser John] Bolton or Sec. Mattis is a willful ignorance."
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