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At a rally in Montana on Thursday night, Trump admitted, "I should not say that," but continued, "There is nothing to be embarrassed."
The comment comes at a time when the administration was responding to the disappearance and alleged murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was last seen in the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, and the Turkish media reported that an audio recording would suggest that Khashoggi had been tortured and killed shortly after entering the building before being dismembered. .
Trump said on Thursday "it certainly seems" that Khashoggi is dead. But Trump said that he "awaited the results" of investigations conducted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, after which he pledged to make "a very strong statement".
Trump said he learned that Gianforte had assaulted a journalist during his trip to Rome and initially feared that the Republican would be injured in the elections.
"Then I said, wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it could help, and that's what happened," Trump said. The president's comments sparked 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 admit it," Gianforte told his supporters at the party rally held on Bozeman's election night. "It's the way of Montana."
Saying that he was "not proud" of his behavior, he added, "I should not have reacted as I did, because I'm sorry. I n & # 39; I should not have treated this journalist that way and I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs. "
At the rally, Trump called Gianforte, "one of the most respected people in Congress" and a "hard cookie".
"By the way, never fight it," he says.
The Guardian's editor, John Mulholland, condemned Trump's joke in a statement.
"The President of the United States tonight applauded the attack on an American journalist who was working for the Guardian.Claiming the attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has sworn to defend that, "said Mulholland. "After the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, he risks inviting other journalists to be attacked both here and around the world, where they often face much more serious threats. honest will denounce these words and that the president will find it useful to excuse them. "
The joke about Jacobs' assassination by Gianforte took place just after Trump introduced the 2018 midterm elections as a choice between the Republican Order and the Democrat "crowds".
Trump said the November 6 vote would be "an election for Kavanaugh, the caravan, the law and order, and common sense – that's what it will be."
In a new line of the campaign, he said: "Democrats create crowds, Republicans create jobs."
Trump later recalled back and forth with former vice president Joe Biden about a fight and again summoned Gianforte's body slam by Jacobs.
"Why not sleep, Joe Biden? Sleepy Joe. Remember that he's challenged me to fight and that's fine. And when I said that & # 39; 39 he would not stay long, he would be faster than Greg Faster than Greg – I should go very fast, I should connect immediately, "said Trump to the crowd.
Trump recalled Biden's challenge, for which he said the "false news" was "cute". When Trump responded that he would collapse quickly, he described the media response in a mocking voice: "They said, what a perverse statement."
Oliver Darcy from CNN contributed to this report.
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