Selective displays of empathy
By Michael D'Antonio
Updated 12:49 PM ET, Sat June 22, 2019
... Trump said nothing about a Saudi intelligence officer referring to Khashoggi as a "sacrificial animal" while another official described how the journalist would be butchered, according to the report. He said nothing about the way the consulate was scrubbed to destroy evidence. He said nothing about the near certainty determined by the UN report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had -- at the very least -- prior knowledge of a criminal mission against Khashoggi, which was carried out by a 15-man team in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Weeks after Khashoggi was killed in October 2018, Trump speculated that "rogue killers" did the dirty work, adding, "Who knows?" Later, after US intelligence pointed the finger at the crown prince, Trump considered whether Salman knew about the killing and said, "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't!" Trump also cited the Kingdom's influence over oil prices and its arms deals with the US and said he was "not going to destroy the economy of our country" over Khashoggi.
The UN report on Khashoggi's murder returns the world's attention to the state-sponsored terrorism practiced by an American ally and reminds us of the President's inability to respond with empathy in the face of such horror -- especially if it's inconvenient to do so ...
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/22/opinions/trumps-selective-displays-of-empathy-dantonio/index.html
