Lindsey Graham Hangs Out With Mohammed bin Salman, A Guy He Once Called a “Beyond Toxic” Murderer

In November 2018, shortly after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for sanctions against Saudi Arabia and condemned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who is believed to have ordered the grisly murder — as “beyond toxic.” On a Fox appearance, he said he could “never do business with Saudi Arabia again” until MBS was ousted. 

“I fully realize we have to deal with bad actors and imperfect situations on the international stage,” Graham wrote at the time. “However, when we lose our moral voice, it seldom works out.”

Graham’s “moral voice” was plenty hoarse by that point, of course, having cozied up to Donald Trump — the man he’d previously denounced as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who would bring deserved ruin to the GOP if it embraced him. But on Tuesday, he seemed to lose what little was left of it, announcing that he had “just had a very productive, candid meeting” with the crown prince in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — less than five years after vowing that he would never be “going back to Saudi Arabia as long as this guy’s in charge.”

“The opportunity to enhance the U.S.-Saudi Relationship is real and the reforms going on in Saudi Arabia are equally real,” Graham wrote Tuesday, a day after he criticized French President Emannuel Macron for meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. (“The last thing we need is Western leaders going to capitals occupied by autocratic dictators pushing narratives they can use to justify and encourage further aggression,” the South Carolina Republican tweeted Monday.)

“I look forward to working with the administration and congressional Republicans and Democrats to see if we can take the U.S.-Saudi relationship to the next level, which would be a tremendous economic benefit to both countries and bring much-needed stability to a troubled region.”

It isn’t clear if Graham brought up the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who was critical of the Saudi regime, but a Twitter account linked to the government posted two photos of Graham and MBS smiling. The two were reviewing the “friendly relations” between their countries, according to the account.