Congress flexed its muscle and broke with President Trump on several human rights issues in 2019, from condemning the murder of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi to acknowledging Turkey’s role in the Armenian genocide in a manner that risked further damaging Washington’s already fragile relationship with the NATO ally.
While some activists say lawmakers could and should have pushed back even harder against the White House, a strong bipartisan majority in Congress publicly rebuked Saudi Arabia and chastised the president over his reluctance to pin blame for Mr. Khashoggi’s death on the Saudi royal family. Many of the rebukes were broadly bipartisan, a rarity in a Congress that often found itself sharply divided along party and ideological lines.
Mr. Trump has sought to preserve the strategic relationship with Riyadh, rights watchdogs in the U.S. and around the world have called for a much broader investigation into Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s suspected role and whether he directed the 2018 crime — carried out by a team of Saudi operatives — at the nation’s consulate in Istanbul. Mr. Khashoggi’s body has not been recovered.
Rights groups say the administration’s record has been a mixed bag, with Mr. Trump and his aides speaking out against China’s treatment of its Uighur minority and Venezuela’s political crackdown while giving unprecedented new focus on religious freedom abroad. But too often, critics say, human rights have taken a back seat to political, economic and security concerns under Mr. Trump.
Amid bipartisan outrage over the incident, Republicans joined with Democrats this year in passing a series of bills that restricted arms sales to Riyadh in response to the killing. The measures also took aim at Saudi Arabia for its continued military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has been carried out in large part with weapons purchased from the U.S. and has resulted in scores of civilian deaths.
Using the veto
Most of those bills were quickly vetoed by Mr. Trump, who has vigorously defended U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and argued that they contribute to regional stability and U.S. national security. But a number have also made it into law, as Mr. Trump faced an almost certain override if he chose to exercise his veto power.
A court in Saudi Arabia this week sentenced five people to death for their roles in the Khashoggi murder but did not place any blame on the crown prince. The outcome of the Saudi trial led some lawmakers to again blast the president for not taking a stronger stance.
“This is not justice, it is a farce,” said Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat and ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It is irresponsible for the Trump administration to continue aiding and abetting this cover up. When President Trump looks the other way at crimes like this, he tacitly condones them.”
But Congress got lower marks for failing to rein in the president’s authority to use military force and for failing to cut off all American support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen.
Washington’s unwillingness to push back on Saudi Arabia is particularly troubling, some activists say, and Mr. Trump’s vetoes sent a message that the U.S. is unable to take a strong, united stand.
“It’s been a real disappointment,” said Andrea Prasow, the acting Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “I think the message to the Saudis is really clear that the U.S. is not going to be as strong as perhaps we thought it would be at the beginning” of the year.
Human Rights First, a Washington-based advocacy organization, said the administration has imposed an “unprecedented assault on human rights” and called for “a Congress that will rise to the occasion and insist that our national defense is best served by policies that promote human dignity and universal values.”
Other human-rights activists say Congress hasn’t gone far enough in pushing back against the White House.
“It’s a split Congress and in many respects, Congress disagrees with the president,” Ms. Prasow said. “There are a lot of instances where even though there may be a number of members who have very good intention that hasn’t resulted in a change” of the law, she continued. In another clash with Congress this year, Mr. Trump said he would not endorse a congressional resolution that officially declared Turkey’s treatment of its Armenian population in the early 20th century amounted to a genocide. Ankara reacted furiously to the vote and briefly threatened to close key American military bases on its territory.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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