Could the Saudi Monarchy Fall Over This?

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Host Mary Harris talks to Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker on the fraught relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Plus, Slate’s Jim Newell explains why you should care about the final debate tonight between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke. This is the debut episode of What Next, Slate’s new daily news show. We’ll be piloting What Next in public for the next several weeks. Tell us what you think: whatnext@slate.com. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/whatnextpus. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show, our weekend reading lists, and our occasional posts about pita chips. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	President Trump's first official trip overseas was a year and a half ago, and it was to Saudi Arabia.
0:06.0	As soon as he stepped off Air Force One, the visit felt like a celebration.
0:11.0	There was a five-story image of Trump projected on the Ritz Carlton Hotel where he was staying.
0:16.0	There was even a traditional sword dance that went a little bit viral.
0:23.0	Journalists shot these videos on their iPhones.
0:26.0	Trump and members of his cabinet swaying awkwardly to the music flanked by men and white robes.
0:32.0	Rex Tillerson is there. Remember Rex Tillerson?
0:38.0	After that party in Riyadh, the goodwill between the United States and the Saudi royal family seemed to spread from Washington outward to billionaires and business tycoons.
0:50.0	When the Saudi Crown Prince came to the United States this spring, he made sure photographers captured him grabbing coffee at Starbucks with Michael Bloomberg.
0:58.0	He strolled through Google's headquarters with Sergei Brin.
1:01.0	And then the Crown Prince ended up on the cover of Time Magazine.
1:05.0	Looking back now, there's a surreal quality to these trips.
1:10.0	Because in the background, always was dissent.
1:14.0	And is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia really on a path to reform and moderation?
1:18.0	At the same time, the Crown Prince was on this goodwill tour in the US.
1:21.0	A Saudi journalist named Jamal Kashoggi was speaking out against the royal family.
1:26.0	Jamal, let me start with you. You've compared your Crown Prince to Putin, to Iran's Supreme Leader. You've said he's creating, quote, an interesting form of dictatorship. How so?
1:36.0	I still see him as a reformer, but he is gathering all power within his hand.
1:41.0	What Jamal Kashoggi said just a few months ago, it's eerie now. He's talking about journalists in prison, afraid to speak out.
1:50.0	But as we speak today, there are Saudi intellectuals and journalists jailed. Now nobody will dare to speak and criticize the reform they like.
2:00.0	Now Kashoggi himself is reported dead after meetings at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
2:07.0	President Trump's dispatched his secretary of state to re-ad to figure out what happened.
	...

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