Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In,” The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin said President Donald Trump was indirectly to blame for an incident involving Republican U.S. House candidate Greg Gianforte in which he had allegedly body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.
Rubin pointed to Trump’s rhetoric about the media at his campaign rallies, which she said created the hostile atmosphere that inspired Gianforte’s actions.
“This is absolutely stunning,” Rubin said. “First of all, that he would be threatened apparently by a meek question you heard on the audio, a very politely posed question and there are all ways of manner in which candidates say I don’t want to talk to you or go, as he initially did, go talk to my communications guy or scram. But to physically accost someone, throw them down on the floor, potentially injure them — what is wrong with this man? I mean, this is really sort of appalling, and I do want to say that there is a cost to continually berating the media.”
“There is a cost to labeling these people, my — myself included, enemies, the opposition, continuing to berate them, calling on crowds to hoot and holler at them,” she continued. “You create an atmosphere in which these people are not treated like human beings, and although I’m sure the president did not intend for this particular candidate to do this, that is the end effect when you begin behaving that way. The fish rots from the head. The tone of the politics of the country is set by the president the United States.”
(h/t Newsbusters)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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