Trump impeachment witness teases 'shocking' call to Saudi prince: 'Deeply disturbing'
President Donald Trump shocked and disgusted many by purportedly suggesting Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi deserved to be brutally murdered by Saudi agents, but Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) claimed what he said to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a private phone call was even more "deeply disturbing and frankly shocking."
The Virginia Democrat called on the president to release the transcript of a 2019 phone call with the Saudi crown prince following the dissident journalist's grisly assassination, and Vindman tried to reveal as much as he could on "CNN News Central" about the call that he was privy to while serving on Trump's national security council during his first term.
"Look, as I mentioned last night on the floor of the House of Representatives, there were two calls among many with foreign leaders that particularly disturbed me, and one we know was with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy of Ukraine, the extortion call, and that resulted in the president's first impeachment," said Vindman, who testified against Trump during that inquiry. "This was the second one that really bothered me because this was about the murder of an American resident, a Virginia resident, and a Washington Post reporter, and the president, the conversation he had, obviously, I can't get into the details but it was counterfactual to what the president was claiming last night."
"What U.S. security and intelligence services have known and stated publicly was the involvement of MBS, and it's time that the president come clean and frankly, in light of the enrichment that the Trump family has received in the ensuing years, I think it's even more deeply disturbing and frankly, shocking," Vindman added.
Vindman was asked whether the call with the crown prince was also impeachable, and he referred to a book written by Khashoggi's colleague Bob Woodward that discusses the call.
"There was actually a book written by Mr. Woodward where the president said that he saved MBS's a--," Vindman said. "I'm just going to quote that, and I think that the the actions and the the special treatment that the Saudi crown prince has received and the ensuing self-enrichment by the Trump family from Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian officials, is certainly a conflict of interest."
"The call itself, I think, would be shocking," he added. "Again, I can't get into any details, but the president actually released the transcript of the Ukraine call, and I think the president should also release the transcript of the call with MBS that occurred after the journalist was brutally butchered by Saudi agents in the Turkish embassy."
Vindman conceded that foreign policy matters sometimes required dealings with "potentially unsavory or adversarial folks from around the world," but he said presidents did not have to form personal alliances with them to ensure national security.
"Whether it's Kim Jong Un, you know, the president of North Korea or the leader of North Korea or Vladimir Putin or President Xi of China, we have to deal with them, but that doesn't mean we have to cozy up to them," Vindman said. "That doesn't mean we have to whitewash history and eliminate what we know are facts or claims, certainly made by the intelligence services of the United States that the prince was involved in the murder, the brutal murder of Khashoggi."
"We can deal with him and at the same time acknowledge that those things happened and the president actually seems to be whitewashing it, which the American people deserve to know the truth," Vindman added. "The Khashoggi family deserves to know the truth, and, you know, it should come as no surprise that the Ukraine phone call was not the only phone call that was problematic that the president had with other foreign leaders."
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