President Trump on Thursday joked at a campaign rally in Montana that Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) assaulting a reporter for The Guardian in 2017 helped him win his election.
“Never wrestle him. Never. Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of … he’s my guy,” he said in Missoula.
{mosads}“We endorsed Greg really early, but I heard that he had body-slammed a reporter. And he was way up … and I said, ‘Oh, this is terrible, he’s going to lose the election.’ But then I said, ‘Well, wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him,’ and it did … He’s a great guy and a tough cookie,” Trump added.
The assault occurred the night before the election after a significant number of votes had already been cast during early voting or via absentee ballots.
Gianforte pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault and was sentenced to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee. He won Montana’s at-large congressional seat by 6 points.
Trump’s acrimonious relationship with the press is well known, with the president having dubbed mainstream media outlets as peddlers of “fake news.”