Page 1452 - Leverage News Today

Convinced himself that saudi arabia is an important financial boone to the y boom to the united states. naes not necessarily true but he doesnt want to have to explain somehow that what he believes to be $110 billion in investments are not coming to the united states. >> the actual spending? >> the actual spending is 10, 15%? >> far less than that. thats our leverage over them, not the other way around. so, president trump is grappling with this. were seeing him grapple with it in real life. i t...

U.s. leverage over parts, etc. right now as it pertains to this investigation, who has the upper happened? the u.s. or the saudi arabian government? >> right now the u.s. has the upper hand because the saudis dont know what the u.s. will do. its one thing for president trump to say something at a press conference that he wants to keep the arms deal and yes, thats obviously where he is leaning. as he said, there are other things the u.s. can do. its loo like this disconnect with president putin w...

They went ahead. and the private sector is something the president cant control. the saudi stock market fell on sunday because companies and investors are worried about what may be coming. >> the saudis have said if they get hit with some kind of response, theyre going to essentially hit back harder, whoever implores sanctions will pay the price essentially. what do you anticipate the response from the saudis to look like? >> these threats havent deterred president trump before. in fact, theyve ...

Reportedly worth 110 billion dollars. there are arguments about the numbers. in your view, is that a wise approach for him to go ahead with the sale and try as he says he will do to punish saudi arabia in other ways? >> well, i think hes giving up some leverage by simply saying straight out that he would not give up the sale. i think a much more nuanced position at this moment would be justified. for example, saying, lets put this on hold. lets take a look at the investigation. lets see where th...

The dip employlomatic relations. we could expel some saudi diplomats and close saudi facilities and affect our own dip employlomatic footprint on ground. there are military options that the president could employ such as changing the character of u.s. and saudi military cooperation. particularly with our support. maybe training exercises, that kind of thing and the arms sale could be factored into that. lastly there could be intelligence sharing repu repercussions. >> which do you think would be...

That would be something weve never seen before, certainly from a country thats an ally. >> lets talk about potential punishments here. the president said one thing is off the table. he would not cancel any arm sale to saudi arabia, saying that would hurt america more than saudi arabia. if thats the case, how does that not come across as the united states putting a price on our human rights policy? >> well, i would have phrased it differently. arm sales to saudi arabia are important, not because ...

Merely restricted to selling planes and other hardware, but if theres intelligence sharing, there is joint exercises and efforts. the leverage is unquestionably in americas hands. >> this is something that has certainly been said in this administration, and that is who do you call? so if were talking about the secretary of state mike pompeo or we talk about those in the white house, in the national security staff, at this moment, if we were to leverage, the united states im talking about, levera...

Balance to iran. do they have more leverage over the united states because of that? the united states does need a friendly, if you will, of such importance in this space? >> thats been the story for many years, for decades, actually. actually, saudi arabia needs america much more than america needs saudi arabia. the fight against -- in the fight between sunni islam and shia islam. the fact that we all know what should happen right now. there should be in severe sanctions if what we fear is true ...

We have to find out the details of it. what is suspected is atrocious behavior. >> who has the leverage here? the united states or saudi arabia? it appears that its the united states given its the united states. >> overwhelming the united states has leverage. the stock of the saudis pulling out a military deal is a red herring. it depending on the united states not just for military hardware but a guarantee of security, of support for the saudi regime. the president put it rather crudely i think...

Demand answers. andrea mitchell, what did you hear? >> i heard congress is going to take action when they prove this. they will prove it, whether they claim it was an accident, a misguided kidnapping attempt. kidnapping rendition is also violence, taking someone. if we had intelligence, its unclear from my reporting when we had intelligence. it may have been realtime or afterwards or after the fact. but there probably should have been a warning if we had anyway of stopping it. in any case, ther...