Republican who body-slammed journalist
minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him.’ And it did.” Mr Gianforte, who was elected to Congress after the attack in Bozeman, Montana, paid a $385 (£296) fine and did 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management counselling. He also donated $50,000 (£38,000) to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mr Jacobs was taken to hospital by ambulance with an elbow injury suffered in the incident. The Guardian’s US editor John Mulholland demanded an apology from the president and said he feared the remarks risked “inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world where they often face far greater threats”.
He added: “To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment [of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of the Press] by someone who has taken an oath to defend it.”
Mr Trump also ramped up the immigration debate at last night’s rally, part of a three-day tour of western states before next month’s mid-term elections. He blamed the Democratic Party for a caravan of immigrants from Central America heading for the US through Mexico, and threatened to shut down America’s border if nothing was done to stop the undocumented travellers.
“I’m willing to send the military to defend our southern border if necessary, all because of the illegal immigration onslaught brought by the Democrats,” he said.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly had a heated row outside the Oval Office yesterday over plans to defend border crossings. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “While we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration, we are not angry at one another.”