Amid a global outcry over the apparent murder of a journalist by the Saudi government, President Donald Trump on Thursday praised a Montana congressman who assaulted a reporter last year. “ “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of guy.” ” — President Donald Trump “He’s a great guy, a tough cookie,” Trump said Thursday night of Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte. “I had heard that he body-slammed a reporter ... and he was way up, and I said, ‘Oh, this is terrible, he’s going to lose the election.’ Then I said, ‘I know Montana pretty well,’ and I said I think it might help him. And it did.”<doc-sep>Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired last Sunday that there would be “something really terrible and disgusting about” the slaying of a reporter. But otherwise, he has been going out of his way to give Saudi Arabia’s leaders the benefit of the doubt about Khashoggi’s disappearance — even parroting Saudi Arabia’s defense before it was publicly aired. The scenario is raising questions not only about Trump’s deference for strongmen and potential business ties with Saudi Arabia but his antipathy and even antagonism toward journalists.<doc-sep>MISSOULA, Mont. — President Donald Trump praised Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., Thursday for physically assaulting a reporter during a House race last year. "Never wrestle him," Trump said of Gianforte at a campaign rally here. "Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my guy." Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault last year after Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian, said the then-candidate "body-slammed" him. Gianforte was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger-management counseling and payment of a $385 fine. As part of a civil settlement, he apologized for responding with physical violence to a question Jacobs asked about health care policy. Cheered on by the crowd at a rally set against the colorful backdrop of a Big Sky sunset, Trump added that he didn't think at the time that the episode would hurt Gianforte with Montana voters — "I think it might help him," Trump recalled thinking. "And it did." The remarks come amid calls for Trump to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for the disappearance and apparent killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Arabia's government, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. The Guardian's U.S. editor, John Mulholland,said "to celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it" in a statement provided to the paper. "In the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it runs the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world where they often face far greater threats," he said. "We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the president will see fit to apologize for them." Trump went back to the theme later in his remarks, as he mused that he could beat up former Vice President Joe Biden — who he referred to as "Sleepy Joe." Earlier this year, Biden, who is considering a 2020 presidential bid, said he would have "beat the hell" out of Trump when they were younger. Trump said he could take Biden — and in quicker fashion than Gianforte assaulted Jacobs. "He’d be down faster than Greg would take him down," Trump said of the former vice president. Trump's comments also came against the backdrop of his argument that the political left is fomenting mobs. "Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs," he said at one point. Trump was here, in one of the state's few liberal bastions, to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. As he has in two previous visits to the state this year, Trump slammed Tester for opposing parts of his agenda and for helping sink the nomination of Trump's doctor, Ronny Jackson, to be Veterans Affairs secretary. That race is one of the most tightly contested as Republicans try to hold onto their majority — and possibly expand it — in the Senate, and Trump is in the midst of a whirlwind tour of competitive House and Senate races across the country. Trump said the final phases of the campaign would be determined in part by a caravan of Honduran migrants trying to make it through Mexico to the United States. He praised the Mexican government for taking steps to try to stop the caravan but said he would deploy force if he has to. "I’m willing to send the military to defend our southern border if necessary," he said, adding that Democrats are wrong if they think immigration is an issue that will help them in the mid-terms. "That's our issue," he said. "Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense ... it's going to be an election of those things," he said, referring to just-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump touched on some familiar campaign themes at the rally here, which was held at an open airplane hangar, but broke out of what had become a rote stump speech to address several hot political topics in memorable language. For example, he mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., another potential 2020 rival, over her release of a DNA test showing that a small fraction of her ancestry is likely Native American. Trump has been calling her "Pocahontas" to remind voters that she marked herself down as Native American when she was a college professor. Trump said that, because she has such little Native American heritage, he "can't call her Pocahontas anymore." Then he said he would continue to do so anyway, calling Warren a "phony." The visit to Missoula was the first stop on a three-day western swing that will also take Trump to Mesa, Ariz., and Elko, Nev., both of which feature highly competitive Senate races.<doc-sep>The British government has joined press freedom advocates and journalists in expressing dismay and disgust with Donald Trump’s remarks at a rally, where he praised the unprovoked assault on a Guardian US journalist by the state’s congressman, Greg Gianforte. At the Republican rally in Montana on Thursday night, the president lauded and made jokes about the violent attack by Gianforte, when he was a candidate, on the Guardian’s political reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017. A spokeswoman for the British prime minister, Theresa May, when asked about the president’s remarks, said on Friday: “Any violence or intimidation against a journalist is completely unacceptable.” Journalists across the US launched into fierce criticism of the congressman, via social media. “Gianforte is a criminal. He pled guilty to [assault]. The president is congratulating a criminal on committing a crime,” said the New York Times correspondent Binyamin Appelbaum on Twitter. Trump’s comments “mark the first time the president has openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil,” added the New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg. Trump fondly reminisced about the physical assault that occurred on 24 May last year when Jacobs, the Guardian’s political correspondent, asked Gianforte a question about healthcare policy in the course of a special congressional election in Montana. At Thursday’s rally, Trump said that anyone who could perform a body-slam, as Gianforte did on Jacobs, was “my guy”, and that news of the attack, which occurred the night before the special election, probably helped Gianforte win. Trump finished his account of the physical assault by saying of Gianforte: “He’s a great guy. Tough cookie.” The partisan crowd at the rally in Missoula in western Montana clapped and cheered. On Friday afternoon, on his way to a rally in Arizona, Trump was asked if he regretted the comments. He said: “No, no, no, not at all,” according to a tweet from a CNN reporter traveling with the president. He labelled the rally a tremendous success and called Gianforte a “tremendous person”. The writers’ organization PEN America, which had filed a lawsuit earlier this week against Donald Trump accusing him of violating the first amendment of the US constitution by using his powerful position to threaten press freedom, has also condemned the president’s encouragement for Gianforte’s attack. In a statement issued on Friday, PEN America said Trump’s “explicit praise” for Gianforte’s assault “marks a startling new low in terms of the White House’s open hostility toward the press”. It added: “Trump’s remarks are a chilling reminder that US global leadership on press freedom has collapsed utterly under the president’s watch. In its place is an attitude of contempt, excusing and now even applauding violence toward the press.” The world’s press would welcome a statement from the US government that it is committed to the rights of journalists everywhere Katharine Viner Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of the Guardian, said on Friday: “At a time when reporters around the world are being harassed, arrested and even murdered these are incredibly irresponsible comments, which fly in the face of press freedom and send a dangerous message to autocrats and dictators around the world.” She added: “The world’s press would welcome a clear statement from the US government that it remains committed to the rights of journalists everywhere to do their work without fear of violence or repression.” The CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who was at the rally in Montana, observed: “The disturbing part of Trump’s jokes about Gianforte was the effect on the crowd. I saw one young man in the crowd making body-slam gestures. He looked at me and ran his thumb across his throat. I talked to him after the rally was over. He couldn’t stop laughing.” A number of journalists pointed out how Trump’s comments are especially troubling this week, coming as evidence mounts that the Saudi Arabian crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is directly linked to the presumed murder of journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul earlier this month. “Tonight [Trump] celebrates an assault on a reporter in Montana at the same time as his Administration tries to minimize the murder of a reporter in Turkey. His words matter, and they reveal his character,” said the New Yorker and CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin. The Washington Post executive editor, Marty Baron, referenced a statement issued by the Guardian US editor, John Mulholland, on Thursday night soon after the event, noting that the president’s remarks run “the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world”. Mulholland’s statement continued: “We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the president will see fit to apologize for them.” On Friday the White House Correspondents’ Association president, Olivier Knox, said: “All Americans should recoil from the president’s praise for a violent assault on a reporter doing his constitutionally protected job. This amounts to the celebration of a crime by someone sworn to uphold our laws and an attack on the first amendment by someone who has solemnly pledged to defend it.” Meanwhile, the president’s son, Eric Trump, defended his father’s comments during an appearance on Fox News. When asked to address the controversy Eric Trump told the host: “Oh, stop. He wasn’t the guy who body-slammed anyone. He can have fun.” Pres. Trump calls congressman who assaulted reporter a "tough cookie" "A tough cookie doesn't attack someone out of nowhere, without provocation, for asking a question about health care policy," says @guardian's @BenCJacobs, the reporter assaulted by Congressman Greg Gianforte pic.twitter.com/kqhxeOEjLC — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 20, 2018 In an appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Friday evening, Jacobs spoke for the first time about hearing the president praise his assault in front of the Montana crowd: “It’s mind-boggling and it’s still a little bit tough to wrap my head around.” He added: “A tough cookie doesn’t attack someone out of nowhere, without provocation, for asking a question about healthcare policy.”<doc-sep>
(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Friday he doesn’t regret praising a Republican congressman who body slammed a reporter. “No. No. Not at all,” he said when asked about his remarks, made a night earlier, lauding Montana Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte. “Different world,” he said during an event in Arizona, implying the political realm is set apart from other matters. “That was a different league and a different world.” “He’s a great guy,” Trump said of Gianforte. “That was a tremendous success last night.” Trump had praised Gianforte for assaulting a reporter during his campaign last May, saying “any guy who can do a body slam … he’s my guy” and made a gesture mimicking a body slam. At a Montana rally Thursday night, Trump admitted, “I shouldn’t say this,” but continued and said, “there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” The comment comes at the same time as the administration responds to the disappearance and apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on October 2 and Turkish media reports that an audio recording suggests Khashoggi was tortured and killed soon after entering the building before being dismembered. Trump said Thursday “it certainly looks” like Khashoggi is dead. But, Trump said he is “waiting for the results” of investigations being conducted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, after which he pledged to make “a very strong statement.” Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in June 2017 after he was convicted of “body slamming” Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian. A judge sentenced him to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management and a $300 fine along with a $85 court fee. Trump said he found out about Gianforte assaulting a reporter when he was traveling in Rome, and initially was concerned it would hurt the Republican in the election. “Then I said, well wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did,” Trump said. The President’s comments were met with laughter and applause from the crowd in Montana. Gianforte won the election the next day and apologized to Jacobs during his acceptance speech. “When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it,” Gianforte told his supporters at his Election Night rally in Bozeman. “That’s the Montana way.” Saying he was “not proud” of his behavior, he added, “I should not have responded the way I did, for that I’m sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I’m sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs.” At the rally, Trump called Gianforte, “One of the most respected people in Congress,” and a “tough cookie.” “By the way, never wrestle him,” he said. Guardian US editor John Mulholland condemned Trump’s joke in a statement. “The President of the United States tonight applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian. To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it,” Mulholland said. “In the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it runs the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world where they often face far greater threats. We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the President will see fit to apologize for them.” The joke about Gianforte assaulting Jacobs came just after Trump framed the 2018 midterms elections as a choice between Republican law and order and Democratic “mobs.” Trump said the November 6 vote will be “an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense. That’s what it’s going to be”. In a new line for the campaign, he said “Democrats create mobs. Republicans create jobs.” Trump later recalled the back-and-forth with former Vice President Joe Biden over a fight, and again invoked Gianforte’s body slam of Jacobs. “How about sleepy Joe Biden? Sleepy Joe. Remember he challenged me to a fight and that was fine. And when I said he wouldn’t last long – he’d be down faster than Greg would take him down, he’d be down so fast, remember? Faster than Greg – I’d have to go very fast, I’d have to immediately connect,” Trump told the crowd.