President Donald Trump announced Monday that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman denied knowledge of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened ‘to our Saudi Arabian citizen,'” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He said that they are working closely with Turkey to find [an] answer.”
He said he would send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia to discuss the issue.
“I am immediately sending our Secretary of State to meet with King!” he wrote.
Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish authorities claim that once inside, the Saudi’s killed him.
The president discussed the issue after he left the White House Monday to visit hurricane damage in Florida and Georgia.
“His denial to me could not have been stronger,” he told reporters about his conversation with the Saudi King. He suggested that Khashoggi’s disappearance could have been the result of “rogue killers.”
“There’s something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were the case,” Trump said. “So we’re gonna have to see. We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.”
Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened “to our Saudi Arabian citizen.” He said that they are working closely with Turkey to find answer. I am immediately sending our Secretary of State to meet with King!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2018
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