Trump's Middle East schmooze fest interrupted as ally hurls 'terrorists' accusation
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) leveled serious accusations against a foreign government that offered to give president Donald Trump a luxury airliner for official use.
The president has drawn bipartisan criticism for accepting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 "flying palace" from the Qatar royal family, which hosted Trump on Wednesday, and Hawley told CNN's Manu Raju that he agreed the luxury jet was problematic
"I know that Qatar now wants to get close to the United States," Hawley said. "Makes sense because we are once again the balance of power in the world. After four years of being laughed at under Joe Biden, people realize the U.S. is back, the U.S. is powerful. They want to get close to us. On the jet, though, I just say this: I think we ought to have a big, beautiful jet, but I'd like it to be made in the United States of America. We can build stuff in America. President Trump has been very strong on that. The U.S. government ought to be buying all of our stuff in the United States of America. That's the route I would go."
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Raju asked the Missouri Republican whether Trump should decline the offer, and Hawley accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism.
"I would just say, if Qatar wants to be helpful, and I think it's great that everybody now wants to be friends with America," Hawley said, "I can think of a lot of other things Qatar could do for us, like, for example, quit harboring Islamic jihadist terrorists who are trying to kill Americans everywhere they can get their hands on them. That would probably be at the top of my list."
Raju pressed him again on whether or not the president should accept the gift.
"Oh, I would say, 'Listen, we're going to get our jets in America, we're great at building stuff – we're going to build our own stuff,'" Hawley said. "But to our friends in Qatar, I would say, 'Hey, listen, we'd love for you to help us with some things- let's start with the Islamic terrorist problem."
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