As Donald Trump attempts to excuse hosting the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, Bob Costas joined CNN’s New Day and bashed the former president’s lack of morality.
Trump welcomed the LIV tour to his golf property in Bedminster, New Jersey this week and even played in Thursday’s pro-am event. Financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf has been under widespread criticism for its strong ties to a government known to have deplorable human rights abuses, including the 2018 assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Additionally, Trump welcoming LIV Golf to his Bedminster course is an especially sensitive issue considering Saudi Arabia’s complicity in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Some 700 plus of the victims on 9/11, 21 years ago, were from New Jersey, some of them from the Bedminster area,” Costas said on CNN. “So the 9/11 families are very hurt about this, very upset, there will be protests outside the grounds. But if we’ve learned anything about Donald Trump, which it shouldn’t have taken very long to learn, is that he doesn’t care about any principle, including American democracy or any person, he cares about nothing other than his own perceived self-interests.”
Proving Costas right, Trump has ignored the protests and pleas from 9/11 victims to keep LIV Golf out of New Jersey, instead choosing to host the Saudi-backed tour just 50 miles from Ground Zero.
On Monday, Trump played dumb when asked about the 9/11 families and their objections to LIV Golf, telling the Wall Street Journal, “I don’t know exactly what they’re saying, and what they’re saying who did what.” During Thursday morning’s pro-am, Trump went so far as to praise Saudi Arabia, referring to them as “friends of mine” before making the absurd declaration that “Nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately. And they should have.”
There is a full 9/11 Commission Report that states otherwise and confirms that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were citizens of Saudi Arabia.
Costas also referred to Trump’s participation in LIV Golf as an “aspect of grievance and revenge,” considering he had the 2022 PGA Championship pulled from his Bedminster course due to his involvement on Jan. 6.
“He was upset because the PGA pulled out following January 6 of last year,” Costas said. “Following those events, they pulled the PGA tournament from the Bedminster course. So this is an element of grievance on his part because as we all know, he is, after all, the most persecuted man in American history and he’s qualified to say that because he’s a scholar of history.”
An element of grievance and a tool for sports-washing, Trump was the perfect candidate to assist LIV Golf as the former United States president claims, “I think LIV has been a great thing for Saudi Arabia, for the image of Saudi Arabia.”
[CNN]
