Congressman Bill Keating
Washington, DC – Today, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing entitled “What Emergency? Arms Sales and the Administration’s Dubious End-Run around Congress.” The sole witness was R. Clarke Cooper, the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Congressman Keating, Chairman of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, asked numerous times about the role of Jared Kushner in the President’s decision to circumvent Congress and agree to an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. During the heated exchange, Assistant Secretary Cooper refused to directly answer the Congressman’s yes or no question.
“We know Jared Kushner had issues with his security clearance,” said Congressman Keating. “We know he is in charge of the President’s Middle East Peace Plan. We know he has a personal relationship with members of the Saudi government. We know he has had alone, closed-door meetings with them. And as of reports this week, we know that his opaque business dealings could be affecting his role negotiating highly sensitive deals in the region. What we don’t know is his role in this disastrous weapons deal. Given all the questions that have been surrounding him since the beginning of this Administration, that is an answer we need and Assistant Secretary Cooper should have been transparent and answered it. But it’s not surprising that he didn’t. When I asked then-Secretary of State Tillerson what Jared Kushner’s role was when it comes to international relations, he told me I’d have to ask Kushner directly. When I asked then-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley what issues Jared Kushner was working on she didn’t have an answer – but she did say that she knew he was very involved with the trip that President Trump made to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fact that none of these officials will answer these questions is telling.”
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