Rebuking the Saudi Arabian claim Jamal Khashoggi was murdered after a fight as "insultingly stupid," Newt Gingrich noted it does not explain why the tools to dismember him "happened to be there."
Gingrich, the former GOP House Speaker, added Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should not be permitted to get away with something "this outrageous and this stupid or he will be out of control for the next 40 years."
"First of all, their explanation is insultingly stupid," he told "Fox News Sunday." "The idea that this guy walked in the room with 15 security people, got in a fight and was accidentally killed and then they happened to have apparently an ability to dismember him and get rid of him.
"That happened to be there – this is just stupid."
The "stupidity" of this has left President Donald Trump "trying to walk a tightrope" now, Gingrich added to host Chris Wallace.
"On the one hand you don't want to break the alliance with the Saudis," Gingrich said. "On the other hand, you cannot teach a 33-year-old crown prince that he can get away with things this outrageous and this stupid or he will be out of control for the next 40 years."
Privately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is likely pressing the Saudis to come clean on the Khashoggi's murder, according to Gingrich, by "saying pretty aggressively you guys have got to come up with the truth."
"This hurts the Saudis to lie this stupidly," Gingrich concluded.
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