CIA Concludes Saudi Prince Ordered Khashoggi's Killing
PAUL: 13 minutes past the hour. We just heard from President Trump, this morning saying, he "has to take a lot of things into consideration. "This is regarding the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His remarks came as the CIA has concluded now, we're learning this morning, that the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the murder of Khashoggi, last month.</s>BLACKWELL: CNN's Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Michelle Kosinski is following this story. Michelle, good morning to you. President Trump says that he has not yet been briefed on this CIA assessment but he had been briefed a couple weeks ago by Gina Haspel. He says he's got a lot more to think about.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Right, it looks like there were several pieces of evidence here, several sources to look at so only now are we hearing that the CIA has reached the conclusion that yes, the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, that he in fact ordered it. That's something that intelligence sources have suspected for a long time just because of Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in matters in his country on such a close level that it seemed impossible that he would not know about this and have been involved in it. But what the President said today pretty closely echoes what we've heard from him before. I mean, after he spoke to Mohammed bin Salman, he said, you know, he denies that he was involved, this could have been a rogue element so listen to the President just a few minutes ago.</s>TRUMP: Look at it. You know, we also have a great ally in Saudi Arabia. They give us a lot of jobs, they give us a lot of business, a lot of economic development. They are - they have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development and I also take that - you know, I'm President, I have to take a lot of things into consideration. So we will talk with the CIA later and lots of other. I'll be doing that while up on the plane. I'll be speaking also with Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.</s>KOSINSKI: So let's see what we hear from the President after he is fully briefed on what evidence exactly the CIA has been looking at to reach this assessment which the Washington Post is reporting they've reached with high confidence. It's a little different though than what we what we heard from the Vice President who is saying now that the killing was an atrocity, that this is an affront to a free press and that the U. S. is determined to hold everybody accountable, who was involved. But here you heard President Trump emphasizing what a great ally Saudi Arabia is and that seemed to be the focus of his reaction to this latest news and it reflects not only what you know, the U. S. 's stance has been towards Saudi Arabia even through this shocking killing of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But what U. S. allies feel too that there has been resistance to do too much too soon in response to Saudi Arabia, there's been real concern about hurting that relationship because western allies see that relationship as being so valuable to have that kind of ally in the Middle East. Now comes the difficult decision of- since the CIA has reached this conclusion, what do you do next and then how does that affect the balance of things in the region?</s>BLACKWELL: Yes, yes. Michelle Kosinski, thanks so much. President Trump says that he's now finished writing answers on the Russia investigation. And he'll be sending them to Robert Mueller next week.</s>PAUL: And it's been a bit of a PR disaster for President Trump and troops. Well, now the President's talking about what he should have done on Veterans Day.