Qt Sibel update.
https://www.twitter.com/sibeledmonds/status/1067646634908180480
She makes a good point. I definitely interpreted Trump's denial of listening to the tape to be strategic. Now, Erdogan, Trudeau, and Bolton are similarly denying hearing it. Commenters are pointing out that the stories say Haspel heard it, but the sources are unnamed.
It seems pretty fucked up if every one of them is strategically refusing to listen to it, dumping that responsibility of confirming the tapes existence to their underlings who are lying to them and he's totally alive. THAT is far fetched.
But it seems equally far fetched that nobody's provided any evidence of the body, murder, or even a credible motive beyond MBS bad man, yet every major news outlet and major politicians got so goncerned that they all got on their soap boxes in a 48hr period and demanded Trump sanction Saudi Arabia immediately. That push was fucking political bullshit.
So the idea that these major players would deny listening to it becomes plausible if they know it's fuckery and don't want to carry that hot potato. But why the hell wouldn't someone just come out and say "what fucking tape?" Or, "we asked for it and we haven't gotten it yet. It's in process."
The answer has to be convoluted as fuck. And they all kind of have to know it's a hot potato for shit to remain this confusing after all that press.