 President Joe Biden, much like his predecessor, wants to sell the Saudi Arabian Air Force $650 million worth of weapons. And to say that this is unethical would be an understatement. But the bigger issue is that most members of the Democratic Party have remained silent on this. Up until this point, thankfully that's beginning to change and there's some pushback, including from Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff speaking out against this sale. Mohan Omar is also joining the fight to stop this, saying that she will be introducing legislation to block the sale and tweeting out selling weapons to Saudi Arabia while they continue to slaughter Yemenis is unacceptable. If we truly believe in putting human rights at the center of our foreign policy, we would not be arming human rights abusers, working on legislation to stop this sale this week. So finally we're starting to see some pushback and Representative Tom Malinowski released a joint statement with other members, including Adam Schiff, where they state the announced transfer of up to $650 million in advanced munitions to the Saudi Air Force is intended to serve defensive purposes and protect against further who the airborne attacks. But the only way to truly protect people in the region is to bring the war in Yemen to an end. The conflict has now claimed thousands of lives and remains a devastating humanitarian disaster. Now, that last paragraph is a really crucial point because the Biden administration did actually announce that they were suspending weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. But there's a catch. As Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams explains, a week after taking office in January, President Joe Biden imposed a temporary freeze on armed sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In early February, Biden announced his administration would cut off U.S. support for offensive operations in the Saudi-led war on Yemen and appoint a diplomatic envoy. The Democrats said Wednesday that while the administration has suspended offensive weapons sales, it continues to provide logistical support and spare ports that permit an escalation of offensive Saudi Air Force operations in Yemen that needs to stop. So it's really encouraging to see members of the Democratic Party, including a prominent member, push back and try to stop this sale. And it's really absurd that the Biden administration is trusting the regime that murdered a journalist out in the open and then lied about it. And you know, it's it's interesting that the distinction here between offensive and defensive weapons matters because one, we're supposed to take them at their word and two, they wouldn't need defensive weapons if they weren't in Yemen in the first place. So they're supposed to be used defensively against the Houthis. But you wouldn't need to defend yourself from the Houthis if you were not in Yemen. So there's absolutely no reason for this. It's something that the Biden administration absolutely should stop. And I do view it as sort of a broken promise because, you know, people see these announcements. OK, Biden is moving us in the correct direction. He's stopping offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia. But then he does something like this. Oh, well, we're selling them these weapons for defensive purposes. It's incredibly disingenuous. And it seems as if that first announcement was nothing more than virtue signaling. So if you don't actually stop selling them weapons, if you don't actually stop rewarding them for the genocide that they are carrying out in Yemen, then they're not going to stop. So it's really important that members of Congress such as Ilhan Omar and hopefully others speak out and condemn this and try to stop this because it's a humanitarian disaster and it's only going to get worse so long as we keep aiding at abetting the Saudis here.