On June 14, the White House announced that President Biden will go to Saudi Arabia and that he will "hold bilateral meetings with the Saudi hosts." Pressing the White House on its ambiguity, a reporter asked if that means Biden will be meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The official circled around the question before confirming that Biden would "see the Crown Prince."
When asked if Biden would bring up the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Kashoggi – whose murder US intelligence has concluded was approved by Mohammed bin Salman – the official avoided the question.
The trip explodes Biden’s promise to make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are." It goes beyond undermining the promise to make Saudi Arabia pay for the murder of Kashoggi and undermines the credibility of the Biden administration’s signature foreign policy goal of the victory of democracy over autocracy.
Biden has cast the contemporary global scene as an epic battle between democracy and autocracy. He has called it "a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies." Our "children or grandchildren,” he has said, “are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded, autocracy or democracy, because that is what is at stake."
Autocracy won this battle. There are few examples in the world of autocracy more clear than Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia had only to hold out a few months and ignore a few calls for democracy to come courting its favors. Biden had tried to call Mohammed bin Salman before. But the Crown Prince "declined" the US request for him to speak to Biden. Now Autocracy has forced Democracy to come in person. It turns out you can compromise with autocrats if what they offer is more important than democracy.