The Washington Post reports on Trump’s shameful Yemen veto:

Trump viewed the Yemen vote as a rebuke of his administration after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and urged some senators not to go along with it, according to White House and congressional aides.

There is no denying that Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the hands of Saudi agents on the crown prince’s orders contributed to the success of the antiwar resolution. Following the murder, there was an increase in critical media coverage of everything related to the Saudis, and the much-neglected war on Yemen received more attention than it had in the past. It was unfortunate that it took so long and that it required such a gruesome act to shock people into paying attention, but it was better late than never. That must have helped to make more Americans aware of what the Saudi coalition had been doing with U.S. support for more than three years at that point. It’s also true that Trump’s discrediting attempts to cover up for Mohammed bin Salman undermined the administration’s claims about Yemen. Members of Congress that were horrified by Khashoggi’s murder were presumably not impressed by reassurances on Yemen from the same people that were carrying the crown prince’s water in both cases.

If administration officials were prepared to obfuscate and run interference for the Saudis about the one crime, that gave members of Congress another reason to assume that they were doing the same with regard to the many thousands of Saudi coalition crimes in Yemen. It was only natural that there would be more support for taking steps to penalize Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi’s murder became public knowledge, and Trump handled the intensified criticism of the Saudis so poorly that he encouraged an even larger backlash. The passage of the antiwar resolution was first and foremost a matter of reclaiming Congress’ role in matters of war and challenging the administration over its despicable Yemen policy, but there is no question that it was also a rebuke of Trump’s overall handling of the relationship with the Saudis because he richly deserved to be rebuked for that. Trump’s full embrace of Saudi leaders and his constant whitewashing of Saudi crimes made it clear that Congress would have to act to rein the Saudis and their allies in, and with his shameful veto of the resolution Trump just proved his critics’ point better than they ever could. The more that Trump tries to shield the Saudis from the consequences of their actions, the worse it will get for him and the Saudis in Congress and with the public.