President Joe Biden has accused a Saudi official of lying about the topics discussed in his private meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while again downplaying his infamous fist bump with the prince.
Early on Sunday, Biden arrived back at the White House from his four-day Middle East tour, and briefly took questions from reporters gathered on the South Lawn.
Hours earlier, just after Air Force One had taken off from Jeddah, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir called a Fox News reporter and claimed that he ‘did not hear’ Biden confront bin Salman, known as MBS, over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Al-Jubeir’s claim seems to directly contradict Biden’s account of the meeting with MBS on Friday, after which the president said that he had raised Khashoggi’s murder ‘at the top of the meeting’ and accused the crown prince of directing the plot.
On the South Lawn, when asked if al-Jubeir was telling the truth about the meeting, Biden bluntly replied ‘No’.
