Yes, you should blame Donald Trump for Republican candidate Greg Gianforte beating up a reporter
Montana Republican candidate Greg Gianforte is a grown man, responsible for his own actions. He allegedly body slammed and punched The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs last night, and three employees from a different news outlet witnessed the assault, so Gianforte deserves whatever legal punishment the court system hands out. He also deserves to lose the Montana election by default. But make no mistake: it is entirely – and specifically – appropriate to blame Donald Trump.
It was Donald Trump who spent his own election encouraging his supporters at rallies to physically assault peaceful protesters. It was Trump who regularly made threats toward the reporters who were assigned to travel with his campaign. And it was Trump who did absolutely nothing when his own campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested for allegedly assaulting a reporter.
I don’t know Ben Jacobs one way or the other, but I do have very little respect for The Guardian and its frequently dishonest antics. I mention this only because even the worst of reporters have a right to be able to do their jobs without fear of violent responses from the subjects they’re trying to cover. I would defend at the top of my lungs The Guardian’s right to not get physically assaulted for doing their jobs, no matter what I think of their editorial quality, and I would expect every one of you to do the same. Why? This is America.
One of the cornerstone ideals of American society is that violence should never be considered an appropriate response to nonviolence. And yet Donald Trump purposely and fundamentally changed that within his own base. He fed their bloodlust. He normalized it. He laid the groundwork for where someone with apparently violent tendencies like Greg Gianforte was able to make it all the way to being the Republican nominee for a U.S. House of Representatives seat. So yes, the rise of someone like Gianforte, and what he did to that reporter, is in fact the fault of Donald Trump. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter.
