October 04, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -   Following the brutal killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, one year ago, the Saudi government became something of a toxic commodity in American politics. Several high-profile lobbying and public relations firms dropped the Saudis as a client. Think tanks, including the Brookings Institution, severed ties with the Saudi government. Businesses pulled out of a major conference in Riyadh shortly after Khashoggi’s death.

As the U.S. intelligence community, and the United Nations, were determining that Saudi Arabia was culpable in the killing, members of Congress demanded accountability. Democrats led the charge on a series of bills that would have halted U.S. arms sales to the kingdom and ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s disastrous war in Yemen. Republicans were outraged too. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who claimed on “Fox & Friends” to have once been Saudi Arabia’s “biggest defender on the floor of the United States Senate,” announced shortly after Khashoggi’s death that Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “has got to go.” The crown prince denies a role in Khashoggi’s death; the U.N. sees credible evidence warranting further investigation.

Despite the backlash directed at the kingdom, the Saudis haven’t faced serious consequences for the slaying of Khashoggi or its slaughter of civilians in Yemen. That is thanks in large part to one man — President Trump. He has loudly and emphatically defended Saudi Arabia at every opportunity. According to a July House Oversight committee report, he recently considered giving Riyadh nuclear technology without appropriate safeguards to prevent nuclear proliferation, in part at the behest of the chair of his inaugural committee, Thomas J. Barrack Jr. He has also tweeted at least a fleeting willingness to go to war with Iran on Saudi Arabia’s behalf following the attacks on Saudi oil fields, something the American public overwhelmingly doesn’t support.