Donald Trump is the disaster that keeps on giving.

If Shel Silverstein were still alive he’d have great fun with the grotesquely fetid nature of Trump’s unnatural “gifts” to the American people. Trump is a perverse Giving Tree. His minions are like spoiled children incapable of setting aside their own interests to help the public they are supposed to serve. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who abandoned his constituents for Cancún during Texas’s deadly weather crisis, is a prime example.

Public service means putting the interests of the people ahead of your own. It’s a test that too many of our public servants (like Cruz) routinely fail.

The greatest immediate test facing the United States remains battling the coronavirus pandemic, thanks in no small part to the Trump administration having ignored the health crisis and the public’s needs and then lying about it. Trump routinely lied, creating cancerous fictions to justify his own selfish needs; his lies brought about a national existential crisis that led directly to the January 6 insurrection (and two separate impeachments).

Trump constructed his fictional world by destroying faith in the Fourth Estate. He infamously confessed to Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes that he attacked the press so people wouldn’t believe us. The simple fact is we cannot make the land safe for democracy until we make the land safe for facts, and safe for those of us presenting facts—whether we find those facts (or those who present them) pleasant or unpleasant.

President Joe Biden recognized this in the first policy speech of his administration, saying, “A free press is essential to the health of a democracy.” Two legislative proposals have been introduced on Capitol Hill: the Global Press Freedom Act and the Jamal Khashoggi Press Freedom Accountability Act. The latter bill, introduced earlier this month in the House by Representative Adam Schiff and in the Senate late last year by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Patrick Leahy, aims to strengthen U.S. resolve to protect journalists and hold accountable countries and foreign individuals found responsible for killing or harming them.

“The United States’ commitment to the protection of journalists and the promotion of press freedom internationally is critical given its prominent role on the world stage,” said Anna K. Nelson, executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA. “Not only does this bill seek justice for the senseless murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it also increases protection for reporters who risk torture, imprisonment and even death as they report critical information.”

The Global Press Freedom Act would institutionalize the U.S. commitment to advancing press freedom abroad by creating the role of an “ambassador at large” who would engage with governments and organizations to draw attention to violations of press freedom and reporter safety.

Both acts are needed. But we are still waiting for Biden to take a critical first step toward protecting freedom of the press.

The January 6 Capitol insurrection exposed some reporters, for the first time, to the kinds of physical dangers that journalists around the world routinely face, though the press at the White House now works safely from behind miles of menacing fencing. Still, we have been slow to insist that Biden clean up one of Trump’s most grievous offenses—the threat against the truth.

True, in his first five weeks in the White House, Biden has done much to turn down the volume of Trump’s war on truth and to foster a return to pre-Trumpian norms. This is necessary so that the shared concerns of the majority of citizens can be addressed without the fictional rhetoric that dominated the Trump era. But I do not believe Biden has yet clearly addressed the real damage caused by Trump’s attacks on truth, nor taken the essential steps needed to support a free press.

If President Biden is serious about returning the United States to constitutional norms, he must find a way to stop threats against reporters. There is no better way to do this than decisively addressing the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Thanks to Biden’s restrictive Covid-19 policies for White House reporters, I have been unable to question him or anyone in his administration publicly and directly about this.

In early February I asked my respected colleague, pool reporter Rob Crilly of the Washington Examiner, to ask Press Secretary Jen Psaki a question for me, since I couldn’t get into the briefing under the new protocols. He obliged. “We saw a break with Saudi policy yesterday in the Middle East,” Crilly asked. “So will the Biden administration openly condemn or implement sanctions against the Saudi government for the death of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi?”

There is little doubt the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (or MBS) is behind the death of Khashoggi, who was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, by agents of the Saudi government.

Trump said little about it and did even less. He defended MBS and continued to do business with the Saudis, issuing a statement in November 2018 saying the United States was “standing with Saudi Arabia” for strategic reasons. “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event—maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” After information tying MBS to Khashoggi’s assassination became public, Trump went so far as to cast doubt on the evidence. “I’ve seen so many different reports,” he said in June 2019 on Meet the Press, then telling host Chuck Todd about the Saudis, “Take their money. Take their money, Chuck.”

The lack of U.S. response to Khashoggi’s murder increases the risk to every reporter on the planet. If those known to be responsible go unpunished, it puts a bull’s-eye squarely on our backs. Further, if D.C. continues to do business as usual with Saudi Arabia, it tells the world we have no moral standing. We care only about the money. It’s a brutal world, folks. So much for empathy.

Back at the early February briefing, Psaki recognized there was a problem as she answered my question posed by Crilly. “First, let me say and reiterate: The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a horrific crime. We are prepared to release an unclassified report with full transparency for Congress,” she said. “This is the law, and we’ll follow the law. Of course, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would have further details, and I would refer you to them for additional specifics.” She said a little bit more about expecting Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record and ended by saying, “I don’t have any policy decisions to read out for you or predict for you at this point in time.”

This is not enough. Psaki simply failed to say what needed to be said.

Last Tuesday she inched closer to addressing the issue. When asked if Biden sees Saudi Arabia as an ally, Psaki said, “We’ve made clear from the beginning that we’re going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia, and part of that is going back to engagement, counterpart to counterpart. The president’s counterpart is King Salman”—not MBS.

This Monday Psaki reacted to another question about accountability for Khashoggi’s murder, saying that unlike the last administration, Biden “is not going to hold back in speaking out when he has objections, concerns about issues related to human rights, freedom of speech, any other concerns he may have about the way things are being run.”

That’s fine as far as it goes, but it isn’t enough to just say the state-sponsored murder of a Washington Post columnist is wrong—not that she said even that much. We all know it is wrong. What needs to be said by the president of the United States is that there will be serious repercussions for it and that it will never be tolerated by this country. It must be denounced in the strongest terms, and no quarter given to those who would sponsor or otherwise support this behavior. Tinhorn dictators must be put on notice: You cannot kill reporters with impunity.

Khashoggi’s death, unanswered by the U.S., increased the risk for all members of the press who simply do their jobs—even those privileged reporters who rarely make it beyond the White House and into the real world. As Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, put it: “When the press is silenced, corruption, violence, inequalities and abuses of power can escape unnoticed.”

Journalists don’t generally have cheerleaders. Readers who cheer us on Monday for reporting information with which they agree will angrily dismiss us on Tuesday for reporting information with which they strongly disagree. That’s part of the job.

Renowned reporter Helen Thomas once told me that if I were looking for friends, I should try a different profession. She was right. But allowing people to disagree with or denounce reporters is a far cry from sanctioning the murder of a columnist who criticizes you.

No one was surprised by Donald Trump’s lack of action on the matter as president. What’s fairly surprising is Biden’s lack of action. On Wednesday, when asked twice about Saudi Arabia and once about Khashoggi, Psaki again refused to decisively address the issue. If the United States does not now hold accountable those who killed Jamal Khashoggi, then we are accomplices after the fact.

President Biden must take decisive and definitive action to make sure despots around the world will take notice: You cannot kill reporters without facing consequences.

If he doesn’t squarely address this issue, then Biden is no better than Trump, who failed to do so; no better than Cruz, fleeing the country while his constituents suffer.

Please, President Biden. Remember Jamal Khashoggi.