“I think it’s insulting to anyone who’s analyzing this with any kind of intelligent background to think that, ‘Oh, a fist fight led to a dismemberment with a bone saw.'”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on Fox News Sunday., on the Saudi explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

President Trump strongly criticized Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an interview with the Washington Post late Saturday, saying that “obviously there’s been deception, and there’s been lies.”

At the same time, Trump defended the oil-rich monarchy as an “incredible ally” and kept open the possibility that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not order Saudi agents to kill Khashoggi.

Said Trump: “Nobody has told me he’s responsible. Nobody has told me he’s not responsible. We haven’t reached that point. I haven’t heard either way.”

“Trump had told reporters Friday that the Saudi explanation was credible, but U.S. officials said he has privately grimaced that his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s close relationship with the crown prince has become a liability and left the White House with no good options.”

“Saudi Arabia’s about-face admission that journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul earlier this month sent shockwaves through a country where many had believed — and defended — initial official claims that the authorities had nothing to do with it,” Bloomberg reports.

Said one Saudi man: “A very sad day for this nation, to see what the country had descended into.”

President Trump said the Saudi arrests in Khashoggi killing are ‘great first step,’ doesn’t want any sanctions to include arms deals, the Washington Post reports.

Trump said that he’ll work with Congress on what the U.S. response should be, but that he’d prefer not to hurt American companies and jobs by cutting billions of dollars in arms sales to the kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia has announced that Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi journalist who disappeared in Istanbul more than two weeks ago, is dead,” the New York Times reports.

“Eighteen Saudis have been arrested and are being investigated in connection with the case.”

“In the statement, the kingdom’s public prosecutor said that an investigation had found that an argument broke out between Mr. Khashoggi and men who met him inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, leading to ‘a fistfight that led to his death.'”

New York Times: “In conversations with allies, the president has begun to distance himself from Prince Mohammed, 33, saying he barely knows him. And he has played down the relationship that Mr. Kushner has cultivated with the Saudi heir.”

“The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi,” the New York Times reports.

“The plan to assign blame to Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the death of Mr. Khashoggi… Blaming General Assiri could also provide a plausible explanation for the killing and help deflect blame from the crown prince, who American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced was behind Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.”

“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has cast himself as a tough, straight-talking former Army tank commander with the moral clarity necessary to confront the world’s bad guys. But on his quick trip to Saudi Arabia, where he sat smiling with royal leaders suspected of involvement in the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist, he hardly seemed the image of principled diplomacy,” the New York Times reports.

“As he was leaving Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday, Mr. Pompeo was asked if Saudi officials had told him whether the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was alive or dead.”

Said Pompeo: “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts. They didn’t want to either.”

Politico: “Pompeo’s performance can be chalked up to any number of factors, including the inevitable trade-offs most U.S. administrations find they must make in dealing with unsavory allies who happen to be key to American interests. But it was also an example of Pompeo — a former Army tank commander who loves tough talk — toeing the Trump line, even if it risks tarnishing his image.”

New York Times: “His killers were waiting when Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. They severed his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded and dismembered him, according to details from audio recordings published in the Turkish news media on Wednesday.”

“It was all over within a few minutes, the recordings suggested.”

Key takeaway: “Such information would not have been disclosed in Turkey without the consent of the government. Turkish media outlets and newspapers are closely controlled: They are either government-controlled or owned by pro-government business executives.”

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is starting to float a trial-balloon explanation for its apparent slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Daily Beast has learned, in hopes of escaping the consequences of an episode that has shaken whatever geopolitical confidence existed in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”

“According to two sources familiar with the version of events circulating throughout diplomatic circles in Washington, the Saudis will place blame for Khashoggi’s murder on a Saudi two-star general new to intelligence work.”

“One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston and the United Nations,” the New York Times reports.

“Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince’s security detail.”

Meanwhile, President Trump told the Associated Press that there has been a rush to judgement: “I think we have to find out what happened first. Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CNN that the United States will lose its credibility on human rights if it does not take action against Saudi Arabia after the apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Said Rubio: “Well, I can tell you that human rights is worth blowing that up and luring someone into a consulate where they’re there by murdered, dismembered and disposed of is a big deal. By the way, this happens to be a green card holder of the United States and — who had been a journalist, but he could have been, you know, a maintenance worker at The Washington Post, it wouldn’t have mattered. It’s a human being whose life was taken by a direct act of a foreign government by luring him into a diplomatic facility in a third country. I mean any one of those factors is bad. Put them all together and it’s catastrophic.”

He added: “And as far as arms sales are concerned, it’s not the money.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of ordering the murder and called him a “wrecking ball” who is jeopardizing relations with the United States.

“The Saudis are preparing a report that will acknowledge that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death was the result of an interrogation that went wrong, one that was intended to lead to his abduction from Turkey,” CNN reports.

“One source says the report will likely conclude that the operation was carried out without clearance and transparency and that those involved will be held responsible.”