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Twice in two months, President Trump traveled to Montana and paid tribute to the state's congressman for assaulting a journalist.
On Thursday, Trump outright celebrated the incident, which led Representative Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) To plead guilty to a misdemeanor. One judge described Gianforte's behavior as "totally unacceptable".
Gianforte won a special election last year, shortly after grabbing Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs, knocked him down and hit him.
"All the guys who know how to slam their bodies, it's my kind – it's my guy," Trump said Thursday, mimicking a body slamming through the air as the crowd laughed.
Later in the night, while mocking former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential challenger for 2020, Trump came back to describe what Gianforte did in a positive way.
The president celebrating the physical violence against a journalist would be quite remarkable in the void. But this comes during a week in which there is international outrage against the murder of another journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump said in a "60-minute" interview broadcast last Sunday that "there would be" something really terrible and disgusting about "the murder of a journalist. But otherwise, he has done everything possible to give Saudi leaders the benefit of the doubt about Khashoggi's disappearance – even going as far as defending Saudi Arabia's defense before it was released to the public. The scenario raises questions not only about Trump's deference for strong men and potential trade relations with Saudi Arabia, but also about his antipathy and even antagonism towards journalists.
Hours before the rally, Trump acknowledged what Turkish officials had alleged, saying he thought Khashoggi was dead, and he said that Saudi Arabia could suffer "very serious" consequences in the country. Waiting for the results of investigations into his disappearance.
Meanwhile, Trump's allies in the House and the conservative media are trying to criticize Khashoggi as having links with terrorists, ostensibly to isolate the president from criticism that he will not defend the Saudis more firmly.
Trump seems aware of the impact of his words of division against journalists – and he uses them anyway. He often calls the press "the enemy of the people". His press secretary at the White House refused to condemn the blasphemy of his supporters directed against CNN's Jim Acosta at a recent rally.
At a rally in September in Montana, Trump hinted that he was proud of Gianforte for the attack on Guardian reporter Jacobs. That made the headlines too, although his lyrics were less brutal than his comments on Thursday.
"And I will tell you what, this man has fought – more than one – for your state," Trump said.
On Thursday, Trump explained at the end of the evening that this could cause him trouble: "I should not say that."
In this 60-minute interview on Khashoggi, Trump acknowledged that he was not the most likely candidate to defend a journalist's disappearance:
"There is a lot at stake. And maybe most of all because this man was a journalist. There is something – you will be surprised to hear that. There is something really terrible and disgusting about it, if it was the case. "
It is usually not surprising to hear a president condemning the violence against a journalist. It is amazing to hear him condone.
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