President Trump Cheering the Assault of a Journalist Is Peak Trump (and Another Low for the U.S.)

President Trump Cheering the Assault of a Journalist Is Peak Trump (and Another Low for the U.S.) October 19, 2018

Our president is a despicable pig of a man, Part 697.

No. There’s nothing about physical assault that is funny. There is nothing about physical assault to celebrate or treat as the behavior of honorable, mature adults.

I feel it necessary to begin there, as the jumping off point for this next tale of Donald Trump behaving badly.

No. He didn’t beat anybody up. He’s too old and feeble, and a man with a mouth that big is obviously a sniveling coward and would shrink away, if ever confronted.

At another of his ego-stroke rallies on Thursday night, Trump worked up the MAGA faithful in Missoula, Montana by praising the actions of Representative Greg Gianforte, who lost his temper and assaulted a reporter for The Guardian in 2017.

“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.

“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.

Basically, he called residents of Montana ruffians, without the intellect or self-control to handle tense situations.

Great.

So did the body slam of journalist Ben Jacobs win the election for Gianforte?

Unlikely, since it was the night before the election and a substantial amount of the votes had already been submitted, via absentee or early voting.

There was a price to pay for his outburst of temper, however.

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.

The law does not align with President Trump’s praise. Imagine that. But then, Donald Trump’s relationship with the law has always been tenuous, at best.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s less erudite spawn, Eric Trump, took to the friendly forum of Fox News to wave off criticism of his dad’s comments.

“He wasn’t the guy who body slammed anyone. He can have fun,” Eric Trump said on Fox News when asked about his father’s comments at a rally on Thursday and the subsequent criticism its engendered.

That’s just it. He shouldn’t consider that sort of behavior by an elected official (or candidate) to be “fun.”

“By the way, this is actually exactly why my father won. Because so many people are so sick and tired of the perfectly scripted politician who memorized their little soundbite and they went out there and they had no crowds and they weren’t any fun and they had no charisma, they had no personality,” he said.

Politics isn’t supposed to be “fun” or reality TV entertainment.

It’s boring, dry, and necessary. It is to be taken seriously, because the well-being of our nation is serious. We have no time for clowns and hucksters.

The Guardian condemned the president for making light of an attack on one of their reporters.

The White House Correspondents’ Association also gave a stern rebuke of a president who still can’t seem to act very presidential.

“We should never shrug at the president cheerleading for a violent act targeting a free and independent news media,” the statement added.

And they’re right.

Sure. Trump’s supporters will cheer this, but we’ve come to expect no better from them. Trump is not the problem, but simply a reflection of the problem: People raised with gutter-level morals and standards voting in large numbers.

 

 

 


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