Nick Schifrin:

That strategic interests are more important than human rights concerns and the president wants to stick by not only Saudi Arabia, but by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

On the strategic concerns, you heard the president and what he said. Saudi Arabia is critical for keeping oil down, Mideast peace plan, countering violent extremism.

And he's not the first president to say that Saudi is a strategic ally. Each of his predecessors for the last 70 years or so has decided that Saudi strategic interests are more important than any questions about human rights concerns.

Now, on Mohammed bin Salman, he is rejecting his intelligence community's assessment. In a statement released this afternoon, the president said — quote — "Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information. But it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't."

Now, the CIA assessed that Mohammed bin Salman was likely responsible for Khashoggi's murder. But U.S. officials I speak to say there's no smoking gun. There is some circumstantial evidence. And there's an assessment that there's no way that the crown prince would know that — wouldn't know that this was coming, given the nature of how Saudi Arabia works.

But that's an assessment. And the president is exploiting that ambiguity. The president, of course, has questioned the intelligence community before about Russia and 2016. But at the end of the day, the CIA provides assessments, and the president provides policy.

And he's not the first president to receive an intelligence assessment and decide to do something different than that assessment leads to obviously.