Trump's Dismissal on Khashoggi Killing Represents a New Low.

“Things happen.” Just two words. That was enough for the US president to brush off what is arguably the most infamous murder of a reporter of the last decade – and in so doing sank to a fresh depth in his contempt for the press, for the media – and for the facts.

Background Details

The US president’s dismissive attitude of the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi came during a press conference with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – a man whom the CIA found in a recent assessment had ordered the kidnap and killing of the Washington Post columnist in 2018. (The crown prince has rejected accusations.)

The US intelligence services were not the only ones to determine the murder – which occurred in the Saudi diplomatic building in Istanbul and in which the late journalist was drugged and dismembered – was approved at the highest levels. An investigation led by then UN special rapporteur, the UN investigator, reached comparable findings.

International Response

For a short time, nations were unified in their condemnation of the kingdom’s conduct. The United States enacted penalties and visa bans in that year over the murder, although it stopped short of penalizing the crown prince himself. Since then, the kingdom has been slowly rehabilitating itself – and the leader’s trip to the US capital seemed to be the final confirmation of that redemption.

Presidential Comments

Critics of the regime had strongly criticized the meeting. But what was on display at the White House was worse than could have been imagined. Not only did Trump fete Prince Mohammed but he effectively rewrote the facts – and then pointed fingers at the victim. Prince Mohammed, he claimed when asked, knew nothing about the killing – in clear opposition to what his country’s own intelligence services determined previously. Moreover, Trump said: “A lot of people disliked that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you approve of him or disapproved, things happen.”

Pattern of Behavior

This represents a fresh and shameful low for a leader who has made no attempt to hide of his contempt for the facts – or for the press. He has smeared journalists (he called ABC news, whose reporter asked the question about the journalist at the Saudi press conference “fake news”), scolded them in open settings (he called one a “rude name” this week for asking about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein), sued media organizations for eye-watering sums of money in vexatious law suits, and called for news outlets he doesn’t like to lose their licenses.

He has pressured veteran news services out of the White House press pool for refusing to use language of his preference, and he has slashed financial support for vital news services at domestically and crucial free press internationally.

Wider Consequences

All of that has created an environment in which journalists are manifestly less safe in the US, but one in which their victimization – and indeed murder – becomes not just unimportant (“things happen”) but tolerated (“a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”).

It is unsurprising that that year was the deadliest year on file for journalists in the over three decades the press freedom organization has been tracking this data: a persistent failure to bring to justice those responsible for journalist killings has created a culture of impunity in which those who murder reporters are actually able to get away with murder and so persist in these actions.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle Eastern nation, which is responsible for the killing of over two hundred journalists in the past two years.

Societal Impact

The impact on the public is deep. Targeting reporters are attacks on the truth. They are undermining of reality. They are attacks on our rights to know and on our freedom to live freely and safely.

On Thursday, CPJ gathers for its yearly global journalism honors. The statement there is the same as my one for Trump: such events may occur. But it is our duty to make sure they do not.