Uh-oh, how will the GOP reconcile this?

Republican Senators lashed out at Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday, arguing that the authoritarian leader has gone “full gangster” during a hearing for Retired General John Abizaid, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the new U.S. ambassador to the kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia has engaged in acts that are simply not acceptable,” Republican Senator Jim Risch, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said during the hearing, Reuters reported.

GOP Senators Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio accused the prince of going “full gangster” since coming to power.

“He is reckless, he’s ruthless, he has a penchant for escalation, for taking high risks, confrontational in his foreign policy approach and I think increasingly willing to test the limits of what he can get away with the United States,” Rubio said, according to the news agency.

[...]

Angry lawmakers from both parties have pushed the White House to provide a full report on who it believes is responsible for the murder [of Jamal Khashoggi]. But thus far, the Trump administration has neglected to meet lawmakers’ demand.

  Newsweek

Yes, that's right, we don't HAVE an ambassador to Saudi Arabia. How handy for Jared.

Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner’s trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country’s royal court last week, according to three sources with knowledge of the trip.

[...]

On his trip to the Middle East, Kushner stopped in Riyadh. While there, he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman to discuss U.S.-Saudi cooperation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and economic investment in the region, according to the White House.

  The Daily Beast

Saudi loans to Kushner's family business was not mentioned.

But no one from the embassy in Riyadh was in the meetings, according to those same sources. The State Department did have a senior official in attendance, but he was not part of the State Department team in Saudi. He is a senior member of the department focused on Iran.

[...]

“The Royal Court was handling the entire schedule,” one congressional source told The Daily Beast, adding that officials in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh had insight into where Kushner was when in Saudi Arabia. “But that is normal for his past trips.”

[...]

Kushner, who has developed a personal relationship with the crown prince, embarked on several trips to Saudi Arabia over the last several years. On one occasion, he traveled overseas without announcing his trip publicly.

[...]

When a member of the administration travels to another country, the embassy often helps coordinate the trip and provides some kind of security. This time, though, the Saudi government provided security for Kushner and his entourage, sources said. And the embassy was largely left in the dark on the details of Kushner’s schedule and his conversations with Saudi officials.

Is Kushner a gangster, too? Rhetorical.

The State Department referred The Daily Beast to the White House for comment. “This reporting is not true and the sources are misinformed,” a senior administration official told The Daily Beast, adding that the embassy in Riyadh was involved in Kushner’s visit and meetings.

Uh-huh. We believe you.

How many embassy staff will now be fired?

Lawmakers said they were concerned that the embassy in Riyadh did not have knowledge of what was discussed between Kushner, MBS and King Salman, pointing to the increasingly fragile relationship between the two countries following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Daily Beast reported last week that the Trump administration is still actively working to make a deal to send U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and that American energy businesses are still hoping to cash in on Riyadh’s push for energy diversification.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.