There are certain acts considered so shocking, so beyond the pale on the world stage, that they unite people across the political spectrum in condemnation. The murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi crown prince was one such act.

As absurd as it seemed to critics of the Saudi regime — who had long pointed to its medieval treatment of women, gay people, and dissenters, and assailed its genocidal war in Yemen — the Khashoggi killing appears to have genuinely hit a nerve among the foreign policy establishment of both DC and the wider world. The revulsion was swift and bipartisan.

Aghast, media companies like the New York Times and various tycoons quickly distanced themselves from the country out of shame. Five lobbying firms dropped it as a client. Loyal Saudi allies in Congress who typically covered for its government’s every depravity suddenly had an attack of conscience, with Lindsey Graham promising “there would be hell to pay.” The killing had “unmasked [the crown prince] as a reckless, dangerous, thuggish autocrat,” charged one of the luminaries of the amoral foreign policy blob, with even the war criminal Elliott Abrams calling it a “a great crime and a great mistake.” The kingdom’s media allies received unflinching scorn and derision in the mainstream press. The incident dominated the headlines for weeks, inspiring unsparing criticism from Khashoggi’s friends in the media.