Biden Official Criticized for Praising Saudi Arabia on 9/11

The Biden administration faced fierce blowback Monday for praising Saudi Arabia's commitment to President Joe Biden's international infrastructure project on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks that involved 15 Saudi hijackers.

White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson Adrienne Watson commended Saudi Arabia for participating in a major joint project that would connect Gulf and Arab counties by railways, an initiative that the Biden White House has pushed in the Middle East to combat China's growing influence in the region.

"We welcome this weekend's announcement by Saudi Arabia committing $20 billion to support President Biden's signature initiative, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure (PGI)," Watson wrote in a post on X, (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

The post was widely criticized, with commentators questioning the timing of the statement and calling the administration tone-deaf for not seeing its inappropriateness on September 11.

A separate NSC spokesperson told Newsweek that the prescheduled tweet was meant to highlight developments from the G20 summit over the weekend and that no connection between the tweet and the 9/11 anniversary was intended.

"Couldn't even wait a day. Incredible," journalist Ken Klippenstein tweeted.

"The White House going out of its way to praise Saudi Arabia on 9/11 is ... a choice," journalist Garrett Graff wrote.

"Was there literally no other day you could announce this?" GOP Senator Josh Hawley's communications director, Abigail Jackson, asked.

Saudi Arabia's connection to 9/11, including speculation about alleged funding or other assistance for the attacks, has clouded the country's relations with the U.S. over the past two decades. All but four of the 19 men who hijacked four planes on September 11, 2011, were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, was a member of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families.

The George W. Bush administration immediately downplayed a Saudi connection in the wake of 9/11, and U.S. officials have insisted that the government is not hiding anything pertaining to Saudi Arabia and the assault on the U.S., in which almost 3,000 people were killed. But families of victims have persistently raised questions about Saudi money allegedly funding the attacks.

In 2021, the Biden administration declassified an FBI report tying the hijackers to Saudi nationals living in America, which revealed a closer relationship than had been previously known, one that was vastly different from the relationship described by the 9/11 Commission's report in 2004.

Biden, in particular, has been the subject of immense scrutiny when it comes to Saudi Arabia. Despite vowing during his 2020 presidential campaign to make the country a global "pariah" for the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Biden traveled to Saudi last year and shared a controversial fit bump with the country's de factor ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MSB.

This year, Biden became the first president to bow out of participating in any 9/11 memorial events. The president did deliver remarks honoring the lives lost in the 2001 attacks from Anchorage, Alaska, later in the afternoon and made posts to social media accounts remembering the 2,977 deaths.

"On 9/11. During the first presidency to not commemorate this day at a 9/11 site. I cannot even understand this," Democrat Lindsey Bolan wrote in response to Watson's tweet.

Some users on the social media platform called the spokeswoman a "disgrace," while others called the timing "tasteless," "unbelievably tone deaf" and "politically inept."

"The White House commending the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the anniversary of 9/11 while the Kingdom is still actively fighting the 9/11 families & survivors in federal court is something...." political strategist Brian Walsh tweeted.

Survivors and the families of 9/11 victims are still fighting a long-running federal lawsuit in New York to hold the Saudi government responsible for the attacks. For 15 years, the lawsuit had been blocked because of the "sovereign immunity" protection for foreign governments in court. Congress cleared the way for the lawsuit in 2016.

On Monday afternoon, it was announced that the U.S. made a deal with Iran that involved swapping prisoners and a release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds, another development that brought criticism of the Biden administration.

"The Biden White House tweets praise of Saudi Arabia and now announces a financial deal with IRAN. And both on 9/11. Unbelievable," conservative commentator Curtis Houck wrote on X.

"Biden just released $6 Billion to Iran, the world's #1 sponsor of terror On 9/11," conservative personality Josh Hasson said.