Welcome to the lead I'm Jake Tapper, and we start today with our world lead President

Biden just spoke from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, moments ago, after meeting with leaders, including

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, the man that the U.S. says ordered the murder

of Washington Post columnist Jamal Hashoggi.

President Biden says he brought up Hashoggi's murder and human rights issues with MBS at

the top of the meeting.

Still the Saudis are rejoicing at the meeting, and President Biden's presence there at

all, despite his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a, quote, pariah over Hashoggi's

murder.

President Biden, in fact, greeted MBS, the country's de facto ruler with a fist bump earlier

today, neither leader answering questions from the press at the very start of their meeting.

Jamal Hashoggi, will you apologize to his family, sir?

A reminder, according to President Biden's own director of national intelligence, quote,

we assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved an operation

in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Hashoggi, unquote.

Among the reasons for that assessment, the DNI notes, that among the murderous thugs

who killed the Washington Post columnist, and then chopped him up with a bone saw, were

seven members of MBS's, quote, elite personal protective detail.

One that, quote, exists to defend the Crown Prince, answers only to him, and had directly

participated in earlier dissident suppression operations in the kingdom, and abroad, at

the Crown Prince's direction, unquote, the report also noting that, quote, the Crown Prince

viewed Hashoggi as a threat to the kingdom, and broadly supported using violent measures,

...