Crowd Erupts After Trump Jokes About Gianforte Body Slamming Reporter: 'He's My Kinda Guy!'

“Never wrestle him, you understand that?” Trump said of the Montana Republican, eliciting loud cheers during a political rally in Missoula, Mont. “Any guy who can do a body slam is my kind of guy.”

“I was in Rome with a lot of the leaders from other countries talking about all sorts of things and I heard about it, and we endorsed Greg very early, but I heard that he had body slammed a reporter,” Trump continued, speaking about the assault on Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs. “And he was way up, and he was up, and this was like the day of the election or just before, and I said, ‘Oh, this is terrible, he is going to lose the election, and then I said, ‘Well, wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did.’”

New statement from the Guardian on Trump’s remarks tonight praising Gianforte’s assault —> pic.twitter.com/ZAMUpcII4B

— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) October 19, 2018