June 2, 2022: Scoop – Biden gets squeezed on potential MBS meeting

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

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4.2 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported this week that President Joe Biden will sit down with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman during a trip to the region later in June. The White House’s thinking here is pretty straightforward. The president has a gargantuan domestic political liability — high gas prices — that Saudi Arabia is in a position to help with. Combine that with the international political realities — MBS is young and will likely lead the kingdom for decades, the West needs new sources of oil given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia’s role as a regional power — and you have the makings of a rapprochement. In a letter obtained exclusively by Playbook and being sent to Biden today, 9/11 Families United is demanding Biden bring up “accountability for 9/11 in any conversations” he has with MBS. If Biden doesn’t, the family members write, “it would signal to the world that you are willing to indulge years more of Saudi obfuscation and obstruction, and that America prioritizes the interests of foreign powers and economics more than the lives of its citizenry.” Read the letter Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Transcript

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0:17.9	Good morning, Playbookers and Rugu Monobol, and it's Thursday.
0:21.3	Today's show, a potential meeting between President Biden and Saudi Crown Prince
0:25.4	Muhammad bin Salman.
0:26.8	This is your Politico Playbook Daily briefing.
0:32.5	When Joe Biden was a presidential candidate, he had this to say about Saudi Arabia.
0:37.0	And I would make it very clear, we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them.
0:42.3	We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.
0:48.3	There's very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.
0:55.0	But now that he's president, he's encountered the same reality that hemmed and his predecessors.
0:59.0	It's much easier to say you'll be tough on Saudi Arabia than to actually do so.
1:04.0	David Ignatius from the Washington Post reported this week that Biden will sit down with Saudi crowned prince Muhammad bin Salman
1:10.0	during a trip to the region
1:11.3	later in June.
1:12.5	When White House Press Secretary Green-Jean-Pierre was asked about this on Wednesday,
1:16.1	she was careful to neither confirm nor deny the report.
1:19.0	Quote, there's really no discussion to have, because I don't have a visit to even talk
1:23.2	through at this time.
1:24.6	The White House's thinking here is pretty straightforward.
	...

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