Biden says he raised Khashoggi murder with Saudi crown prince

President Joe Biden on Friday, after a much-criticized meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said he had raised the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi with the de-facto Saudi leader.

“I raised it at the top of the meeting,” Biden said of the case of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist based in the U.S., “making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and what I think of it now.”

“I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my new crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” he added.

Mohammed bin Salman’s response was that he was not personally responsible, Biden said. “I indicated I thought he was,” Biden continued about the 2018 killing at the Saudi embassy in Turkey that U.S. intelligence says the crown prince approved.

Before the meeting, Biden had declined to commit to raising Khashoggi’s murder and the Saudi record on human rights in general.

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancee, previously described Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia as “heartbreaking.” On Friday, she criticized Biden’s seemingly warm welcome with the crown prince, adding a photo of them fist-bumping.

When asked about her statement, Biden said he was “sorry she feels that way” and continued to condemn Khashoggi’s killing as “outrageous.”

“The fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake—it was shameful,” Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan said in a statement. “It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.”

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told ABC News the Saudi side of the exchange between MBS and Biden over Khashoggi’s murder.