Opinion: The president praises an assault

Also: An ambitious new tax plan, to help the middle class and poor. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, October 19, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist In May of 2017, Greg Gianforte — then a Republican businessman running for Montana’s lone seat in the House of Representatives — got angry at a journalist who was asking him questions about health-care policy. Gianforte then picked up the journalist, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, and slammed him to the ground. “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him,” said Alicia Acuna, a Fox News reporter who witnessed the attack. “Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’” ([You can listen to an audio tape of the incident.]( Police later charged Gianforte with assault, and he pleaded guilty. A judge ordered him “to report to the Gallatin County jail to have his mugshot and fingerprints taken,” as [Whitney Berne of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle explains](. Gianforte’s punishment included a six-month deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger-management counseling, $385 in payment to the court and $4,464.97 in restitution to Jacobs. The voters of Montana elected Gianforte anyway, and last night — at a rally in Montana — President Trump was full of praise for Gianforte. Specifically, Trump praised Gianforte for the assault. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of guy,” [the president said](. Since he began running for president in 2015, Trump has tried to discredit almost any independent source of information he did not like — be it from journalists, federal judges, the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the Congressional Budget Office or scientists. Trump has also repeatedly encouraged or praised violence committed by people he considers allies against people he does not. Trump is not — thank goodness — an autocratic ruler of the United States. But he is behaving like one. Encouraging violence against political opponents is no joke when it comes from the president. It is a classic tool of autocracy. And it’s one more sign that Trump does not accept fundamental tenets of democracy, including the rule of law. The president, [writes The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin]( “tonight celebrates an assault on a reporter in Montana at the same time as his Administration tries to minimize the murder of a reporter in Turkey. His words matter, and they reveal his character.” Inequality. In the Atlantic, [Annie Lowrey]( looks at Senator Kamala Harris’s ambitious plan to lift the take-home pay of the middle class and poor. It’s the latest anti-inequality proposal from a leading Democrat. “Harris is offering a kind of fun-house-mirror inversion of the sweeping Republican tax initiative, one that would, instead of slashing rates on high-income households and corporations, push huge credits out to middle-income and poor families,” Lowrey writes. Jamal Khashoggi. In The Times, [Madawi al-Rasheed]( a historian of Saudi Arabia, argues that the kingdom’s monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, should remove his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from power. Doing so “might save Saudi Arabia from more serious upheaval and possible implosion from within in the future,” al-Rasheed writes. The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including the first [“comic strip to the editor,”]( from Stan Mack. [Eight Stories of Men’s Regret]( Produced by ALICIA P.Q. WITTMEYER The Times asked men to share stories of past bad behavior toward women. Here are their accounts of intimidation, coercion and complicity. From Our Columnists [The Trump Tax Scam, Phase II]( By PAUL KRUGMAN Deficits are up? Cut Medicare and Social Security! [A Cure for Political Despair]( By MICHELLE GOLDBERG Join the women trying to save America from Trump. [The Neighborhood Is the Unit of Change]( By DAVID BROOKS No, starfish are not saved one by one. [Time to Close the Democracy Gap]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD For too many Americans, registering to vote is an obstacle course. Follow a national political correspondent for The Times, to the front lines of the battleground races. Send your questions and share suggestions with [The Campaign Reporter](. [Does Anyone Really Know What ‘Medicare for All’ Means?]( The Heads of State By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL AND SHEFALI LUTHRA More and more politicians are calling for single-payer health care. Is it just talk? What’s Next for Saudi Arabia? [Saudi Arabia Has No Leverage]( By ELLEN R. WALD Ignore the bluster from Riyadh. The Saudi economy is dependent on the U.S., which has plenty of power to force concessions. [Why King Salman Must Replace M.B.S.]( By MADAWI AL-RASHEED To save its reputation and avoid becoming a pariah state in the aftermath of the Khashoggi murder, Saudi Arabia should replace its crown prince. [Jamal Khashoggi Deserves Justice]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Trump, now is not the time to back down. 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