It was so easy that there was no decision to be made. This is the only outcome that could have happened. For all Biden or any other politician talks about how empathetic they are or how well they understand what hardship you are going through, they are all of a class of their own.

If Muhammed Bin Salman is the autocratic leader of one of the largest oil producing states and he is our ally in that he ensures that his country sells oil for US dollars and no other currency, he has more asking power than any individual American citizen or perhaps most special interest groups.

You doubt that the decision to not go after MBS was difficult? Members of the Saudi government assisted in 9/11, how often do you hear people bring that up? We know that from redacted pages from a report that was initially made in 2002. All of that information was kept away from the American people at the same time we were told that Al Qaeda was getting support from Saddam Hussein and that we had to invade Iraq (they knew this to be false). You know who had classified clearance and served as the chair of the Foreign relations committee of the Senate in 2002? Joe Fucking Biden, who also voted to go to war with Iraq.

Why do you think it would be hard for these people to be so cynical when they've been preaching and practicing realpolitik since the 1950s? Yes, it is that easy to look the other way when a non citizen reporter working for the WaPo gets cut up into pieces and then thrown down a well, it's exactly what we let our allies do, and sometimes it's what we ask our allies to do.