On May 24th, 2017, Republican and then congressional candidate for Montana Greg Gianforte physically assaulted Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian.

“Candidate puts reporter in hospital for asking about health care bill” is a real headline about a thing that happened.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) May 25, 2017

Even more damning is the statement put out by Gianforte's office which aimed at defending the candidate's actions in terms of it being a defense towards having "a recorder shoved in [his] face."

This statement would be entertainable if there wasn't Jacobs' audio recording of the struggle, or witness reports from other journalists backing up that Jacobs showed no signs of aggression. Despite this altercation, the election went forth as normal and Gianforte won.

The question can be asked of how does anyone view this as acceptable behavior for a candidate for public office? The answer is that we've seemed to accept it as fine higher up in the chain of command already.

While no fistfight or bodyslam, Trump pushing aside the Prime Minister of Montenegro to move to the front of a group of several heads of states is not the kind of gesture one would associate with the President of the United States. But personally, I wasn't shocked nor surprised that it was something Donald Trump did. Trump is a bully, he has been since he started his presidential campaign, his supporters obviously still support him for it, and Gianforte not being panned for actually physically assaulting a reporter is an example that in lower office races they're still willing to accept it.

Use of physical stature to persuade individuals is certainly not an alien concept for a president. Google the term "Arm-twisting" and you'll inevitably find this picture of Lyndon B. Johnson "making his point" to a colleague.

A little brutish? Maybe, but not outright cruel like mocking a disabled reporter or throwing rally protestors out into the cold and making sure they don't have their jackets. The video of the latter you can hear members of the audience cheering at the sentiment, which is an apt summary of where we are in American politics. Punch your enemies below the belt and the crowd goes wild, though Gianforte may be proof that they don't have to be your enemy, they just have to be asking questions.

Gianforte did issue an apology, but not until after he won.