Frustrated White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Saudi prince MBS over his controversial statement.
During an interview with Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post at her regular briefing on Monday, the Biden administration’s chief spokesperson blasted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his “ridiculous” mockery of President Biden’s mental acuity and frequent gaffes.
When asked about the Wall Street Journal report, describing the statement of the de facto Saudi leader bin Salman, insulting the president behind closed doors, the House press secretary initially told Olorunnipa that “I don’t have any comments on that.”
However, a few moments later, she changed her mind and went on to criticize the Saudi Prince and told Olorunnipa, “Actually, let me say something about your first question. I’m not going to comment about, you know, kind of ridiculous statements. I’m not going to comment on that.”
“But I’ll be very clear: the president has been very clear since the beginning of this administration that we have to review our relationship with Saudi Arabia. And so that is something that we’re going to continue to review and once we have something to share, we will certainly share that.” Jean-Pierre added.
The press secretary also continued and said, “the decisions that OPEC+ made recently, we saw that as them aligning with Russia, and that is going to hurt many economies across the globe. The president is going to have more to say on that and when he does, you’ll hear directly from him.”
After that, Veteran journalist James Rosen of Newsmax followed up and asked press secretary Jean-Pierre, “Which statements are ridiculous?”
“I’m not going to give it any more light. I’m just saying that more broadly.” Jean-Pierre replied.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 37-year-old ruler, mocked President Biden in private while questioning his mental state.
Although the report didn’t specify what gaffes or instances Prince Mohanned allegedly referred to when speaking about Biden, it also claimed that “the prince preferred former President Trump and has seemed unimpressed with Biden since his days as vice president while also making fun of his gaffes.”
Following the controversy, Prince Faisal released a statement, denying the allegations that Prince Mohammed had privately made fun of Biden or told aides he favored his predecessor.
“These allegations made by anonymous sources are entirely false. The kingdom’s leaders have always held the utmost respect for U.S. presidents, based on the kingdom’s belief in the importance of having a relationship based on mutual respect.” Faisal said.
