September 23, 2020

Trump Gleefully Praises Violence Against Journalists as a “Beautiful Sight”

“They threw him aside like he was a little bag of popcorn.”

Niyi Fote/ZUMA

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President Trump built on his record of praising and promoting violence against the media on Tuesday, relishing the scene of a reporter getting thrown like “a little bag of popcorn” as a “beautiful sight.” 

“They threw him aside like he was a little bag of popcorn,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania. “But I mean honestly, when you watch the crap that we’ve all had to take so long…when you see it, it’s actually a beautiful sight.” 

While the comments drew laughs from the crowd, it was Trump who appeared most pleased while recounting scenes of journalists in physical pain during encounters with law enforcement officials.

That sense of satisfaction shined through on Tuesday when the president disparagingly mimicked an “idiot reporter” from CNN—though apparently in reference to Ali Velshi of MSNBC—who “got hit in the knee with a canister of tear gas” while covering the protests in Minneapolis in May. Trump also mocked Velshi—who was hit by a rubber bullet, not tear gas—at a rally in Minnesota on Sunday, where he called the injury a “beautiful” moment.

The remarks, of course, are familiar territory for a president who has long celebrated violence against members of the media. In 2018, he praised Rep. Greg Gianforte, the Montana congressman how is now running for governor, who is best known for body-slamming a Guardian campaign reporter who asked him about Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Any guy that can do a body-slam, he is my kind of guy,” Trump told supporters at a Missoula rally. He also refused to condemn a gory video that aired during a pro-Trump political gathering at his Florida resort. It depicted the president murdering journalists in a gleeful shooting spree.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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