WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke to Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed a bipartisan group of Senate committee leaders on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Today’s briefing comes after there was bipartisan outrage last week over an all-senators briefing by the administration that did not include any intelligence officials.
“Before this briefing, I was convinced that we had to take steps on the war in Yemen and I believe that we had to take steps on the Saudis,” said Senator Menendez. “I am only solidified in that view after this briefing. It is my hope that the Senate will act and send a strong, unequivocal message that such actions cannot stand and I believe that my legislation with Senator Graham is the appropriate response.”
Last month, Senator Menendez, along with Senators Reed, Graham, Shaheen, and Collins, introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2018. The bill would ensure effective Congressional oversight of U.S. policy on Yemen, provide leverage to push the stakeholders in Yemen’s civil war toward a political process, address the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and demand meaningful accountability for the murder of Khashoggi.
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