'Little to no value': 9/11 family member trashes Trump's outreach efforts amid Saudi golf tournament uproar
Former President Donald Trump is trying to make amends with the families of 9/11 victims who are angry that he's hosting a golf tournament funded by Saudi Arabia.
However, as Politico reports, the early returns on Trump's outreach efforts are less than promising.
Brett Eagleson, a founder of the group 9/11 Justice, tells the publication that a Trump representative reached out to him in recent days to communicate that the twice-impeached former president understood his hurt and anger about the Saudi government's links to the deadly terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 Americans two decades ago.
According to Eagleson, the representative told him that "9/11 is really near and dear to [Trump] and it’s so important to him he is going to remember everyone who signed the letter and he personally told [the aide] to reach out.”
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However, the representative did not pledge to cancel the tournament, which led Eagleson to describe the outreach effort as having "little to no value."
"If it was so important to him why did he tell you to call me, why didn’t he call himself?” Eagleson said.. “[The aide] just kept repeating the same talking points, one being that the contract is binding and there is no way out of it. And when I pressed on when [the contract] was signed, she said she didn’t know and just continued to say that the President was flattered with the letter, which was a weird thing to say, since it was not a very flattering letter. It called him a hypocrite essentially.”
The organization 9/11 Families United last week announced plans to protest against the Saudi-backed tournament this week in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"While members of the Saudi-funded LIV golf tour prepare to continue 'sportswashing' the Kingdom's reputation by playing in another tournament on U.S. soil, 9/11 Families United and members of the 9/11 community will remind them next week yet again that Saudi Arabia provided support for al-Qaeda and the 9/11 hijackers," the organization stated in a press release.
The group also argued that it was particularly wrong to have a Saudi-hosted golf tournament just "50 miles from Ground Zero" and they also pledged to "discuss the recently declassified documents that demonstrate direct Saudi support for 9/11 hijackers."