Thousands of miles from home, where clashes were raging after federal agents killed two Minnesotans in the street, the two political adversaries held forth on life lessons, offered advice to the kingdom’s authoritarian leadership and found at least one patch of common ground. They are both fans of the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, they said.
“It is exhilarating to see the development,” said Mrs. Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Carlson, a television personality turned podcast host whose uncritical interview with a white nationalist last year helped deepen fractures in President Trump’s coalition, mused that Saudi Arabia, a hereditary monarchy, was “kind of a weirdly free place.”
“One of the things I love so much about coming here is you go to dinner in Riyadh or other cities in the area and you run into people you know from other places,” he said. “It’s like: Yeah, of course, everyone is in Saudi.”