President Donald Trump praised the victory of Greg Gianforte on Friday, calling his triumph in a special Montana election – a day after being charged with assaulting a journalist – a great win.
President Donald Trump praised the victory of Greg Gianforte on Friday, calling his triumph in a special Montana election — a day after being charged with assaulting a journalist — “a great win.”
“Great win in Montana, ” Trump told reporters as he arrived in Italy for a meeting of the G-7 nations as part of his first foreign trip as president, The Hill reports.
Gianforte won the House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, besting his opponent Rob Quist with just over 50 percent of the vote.
Witnesses said Gianforte body-slammed Ben Jacobs on Wednesday after The Guardian reporter asked him a question about the GOP’s controversial plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Jacobs, who was knocked down and had his glasses smashed, called police who charged Gianforte with misdemeanor assault, a crime punishable by up to six months behind bars.
After his staff initially denied the assault, Gianforte apologized to Jacobs for a “mistake” and “action that I can’t take back.”
“I’m not proud of what happened, ” he said.
The apology came after several GOP lawmakers called for Gianforte to say he was sorry to Jacobs.
On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ripped Gianforte, as a “wannabe Trump, ” The Hill reported.
“We try to have some level of dignity as to how we treat people and who we are — the behavior we expect from our own families, ” she said.
“And to see this person who wants to be the one representative into the House of Representatives from Montana be sort of a wannabe Trump — you know, use language like that, treat people harshly like that — that’s his model. Donald Trump’s his model. And we’ve really got to say, ‘Come on, behave, behave.”‘
