[Anderson Cooper, Cnn:] Good evening. We're following two fast moving stories tonight. Saudi Arabia admitting that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, giving their account finally of how it happened, which may raise yet more questions of a cover-up. I'll talk to Clarissa Ward in Turkey about that. Also, a crisis unfolding on Mexico's southern border and its impacts on the American midterms. Thousands of migrants fleeing in some cases violence and poverty in Honduras, are trying to enter, some to settle, other trying to then make their way north to the United States. These so-called caravan you've been hearing about, today, there was chaos at the border crossing, a stampede, tear gas. And with things at a flashpoint, President Trump was out on the campaign trail making these migrants part of the GOP's closing argument for the midterms. We're following this closely. We're going to bring you a live report from that border crossing in just a few moments. We begin, though, with keeping them honest, with something else the president is saying on the stump. And like many things this president says, despite the blowback, he has no regrets. This is what he said last night, talking about Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte who last year physically assaulted a reporter who was asking him a policy question during his campaign.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] And, by the way, never wrestle him. Do you understand that? Never. Any guy who can do a body slam, he's my kind of he's my guy. I shouldn't say there's nothing to be embarrassed about. So I was in Rome with a lot of the leaders from other countries talking about all sorts of things. And I heard about it. And we endorsed Greg very early. But I had heard that he body slammed a reporter.
[Cooper:] So that's what he said last night and the crowd ate it up. And just to remind you, here is audio of the assault that they were cheering and that the president was admiring.
[Ben Jacobs, The Guardian:] the CBO score. As you know, you've been waiting to make your decision about health care and until we saw the bill and it just came out.
[Greg Gianforte , Then-congressional Candidate:] We'll talk to you about that later.
[Jacobs:] Yeah, but there's not going to be time. I'm just curious
[Gianforte:] Speak with Shane please. I'm tired of you guys, the last time you came here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here.
[Jacobs:] Jesus.
[Gianforte:] Get the hell out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with "The Guardian"?
[Jacobs:] Yes, and you just broke my glasses.
[Gianforte:] The last guy did the same damn thing.
[Jacobs:] You just body slammed me and broke my glasses.
[Gianforte:] Get the hell out of here.
[Cooper:] Congressman Gianforte and his spokesman both initially gave misleading accounts of the incident. However, in the end, the congressman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. He also apologized to reporter he attacked. Ben Jacobs is going to join me shortly. In other words, Congressman Gianforte expressed at least some degree of regret for what he did, whether he felt it or not is impossible to get into his head, but he expressed it. President Trump on the other hand had no regrets when asked late today for using the physical assault on another human being as a stump speech applause line.
[Trump:] No, no, no. Not at all. That was a different world. That was a different league, a different world. No, he's just a great guy. He's you know Greg very well, right? That was a tremendous success last night in Montana and Greg is a tremendous person. And he's a tough cookie. And I'll stay with that. You're talking about a different world.
[Cooper:] Now, it's not exactly clear what the president of the United States meant by "a different world" or "a different league." On the other hand, he was perfectly clear about having no regrets. Keeping him honest, though, even as the president was endorsing an act of violence by a Republican candidate for Congress, he was also at the very same rally saying this.
[Trump:] The Democrats have truly turned into an angry mob bent on destroying anything or anyone in their path.
[Cooper:] That kind of sounds like the president believes that violence on the campaign trail or the threat of it is a bad thing. And at least one staunch conservative seemed to notice. Former Tea Party Republican Joe Walsh tweeting, quote: The president encourages and applauds physical violence against a journalist. Hey, Republicans, don't ever complain again about violence coming from the left. So there's that. There's also the sad and simple fact that the president of the United States is yakking it up about an assault on one reporter, while he himself is embroiled in the Khashoggi crisis, the killing, the murder, the dismemberment of a journalist. It's not like it could have slipped his mind or anything. Just a few hours before that rally, the president spoke about it on camera, conceding that Jamal Khashoggi was probably dead, possibly in the hands of a strategic ally. Dead, the Saudis now says, after a quarrel and physical altercation. Turkish officials say otherwise, citing audio and his murder and dismemberment. Now, clearly, whatever it turns out to be, it is a world away in every sense from what appears to have been an act of spontaneous violence by a hot-headed candidate and clearly, the president's love of tough cookies, as he calls them, is matched only by his antipathy for the press. The question is, at a time like this, when dozens of journalists have been killed this year, with one at the center of a strategic crisis, why didn't any of that seem to factor into the president's thinking or speaking last night and why when this president is ramping up the rhetoric against Democrats for what he says is mob-like behavior is he applauding violence, actual violence by the man he's campaigning for? Joining us now, the reporter who you heard a moment ago being assaulted by then-candidate Gianforte, Ben Jacobs of "The Guardian". This is his first time talking about the president's mention of it. Ben, thanks for being with us. I guess the first question is just, what went through your mind when you heard those comments from President Trump last night?
[Ben Jacobs, Reporter, The Guardian:] It was sort of shock and dismay, that I always, you know, knew that was a possibility, but then there is the process of how you deal with it and then how you actually call up and tell your family that the president is mocking when you've been a victim of a crime.
[Cooper:] I mean and today, the president said he had no regrets about what he said. I guess that doesn't surprise you.
[Jacobs:] No, it doesn't. As someone who actually covered this president on the campaign trail for 18 months, I'm very familiar with his M.O. You know, I've interviewed him a couple of times. And that didn't surprise me. I wish I wish he had surprised me in that. But it was it was what it was.
[Cooper:] For all the president's talk about Gianforte being a tough guy and a tough cookie, I mean, he was such a tough cookie that he was misleading initially about what he actually did to you.
[Jacobs:] Yes, no, he lied about me until he realized there's audio and eyewitnesses, that you know, that it was not the actions of a tough cookie. A tough cookie doesn't attack someone out of nowhere without provocation for asking a question about health care policy. The police asked me afterwards was there anything about the Congressional Budget Office that might have set him off and then lie about it, that that's not the action of a tough cookie. That's the action of a coward.
[Cooper:] Yes, and the coward lies about it, which is what he did and his campaign people did as well. So, I mean, I just really find it amazing that the president is praising him as a tough cookie when this is a guy who assaulted you out of nowhere and then lies about it. It's just incredible to me. Your publication, "The Guardian," said in a statement that the president should apologize for these comments. Do you want an apology?
[Jacobs:] I mean, it would be great if there was one. I'm not holding my breath. I mean, my concern is not about my situation as much as it is with Jamal Khashoggi and everything going on in the world, that the signal this sends about how the United States and how the president of the United States views journalists, when 44 journalists have been killed this year is what's really concerning. You know, what I'm going through, it's not fun, I'll get over it, but there are people reporting all across the world right now who are actually, you know, in fear of their lives. And what this does is, you know, a blank check for governments who want to crack down on a free press in places that don't have the First Amendment.
[Cooper:] Yes, I mean, it's entirely possible. I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the president might, you know, at one point say, wow, MBS had a really strong reaction to Jamal Khashoggi, you know, it was a really powerful reaction. I mean, you have no idea there's no telling what this president actually thinks about what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Steve Scalise, a Republican congressman, said the president was clearly joking at this rally. He said, quote, it's obvious he was not encouraging his supporters to engage in attacks. Is that clear to you? Because it's certainly not clear to me.
[Jacobs:] Yes, I've certainly, Steve Scalise has been through a lot and I certainly my heart goes out to him and what he's been through. But, you know, I maybe he has a better sense of humor to me because I didn't hear a punch line there. I didn't hear a joke there.
[Cooper:] He's also pointing to reporters in the back when talking about who to body slam. I don't know. I just keep going back to the fact that you were just doing your job, you were asking a question, you know, you asked it more than once, because you knew you were not going to get an answer and you knew he was going to blow you off, and all you did is ask a question, and you got body slammed, and the president of the United States celebrated that last night, celebrated a guy convicted of assaulting you.
[Jacobs:] Yes, it's still it's mind-boggling, still a little tough to wrap my head around. But this is the world we live in today. And having been through, you know, been through this for the past year and a half and how it's sort of you know, the initial shock and then this, it's it's unfortunately what may be hopefully it is only in the short term the new normal.
[Cooper:] All right. Ben Jacobs, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Ben.
[Jacobs:] Thank you.
[Cooper:] I want to get perspective from "USA Today" columnist and CNN political analyst, Kirsten Powers, also former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes. Steve, is it appropriate under any circumstance for the president of the United States to praise anyone, much less a congressman, for assaulting a reporter and then who also lied about it?
[Steve Cortes, Cnn Political Commentator:] Right, Anderson, no, listen, I don't like it, it's not what I would have done. But I also do think it's important, there's an important distinction here which is that he said I like the kind of guy who can do that. He didn't say specifically and I think this is important, again, I don't like it, I wish he hadn't gone there, but he said I like the kind of guy who fights back. So, to me, I think it's a metaphor. Those of us in the Trump movement, if there's one trait that I think marks the 2016 election, it was fighting back against the crony political class, against media elites. He's saying that he likes that pugnacious character and that part I understand. But agreed, I wish he hadn't gone there in terms of somebody who actually pled guilty to actually assaulting a reporter.
[Cooper:] Right. But actually what he said is "any guy who can do a body slam is my kind of guy." first of all, I don't know if the president is capable on doing a body slam on somebody physically, I'm not sure he could. But the idea that he's praising somebody who not only could do a body slam but did assault a reporter I mean, I understand he likes to punch back or punch down, but this is literally punching.
[Cortes:] Right. Well, Anderson, as I just said, it's not something it's not where I would go. And I think it was unfortunate that he went there. But again, I do think it's also a distinction, he didn't say, I'm glad he assaulted a reporter, I like that. What he said is, I like the kind of guy who can fight back. And when he says fight back too, I think this is important, too. When he's at rallies, I think it's important to take the president seriously but not literally always. Look, Donald Trump in many ways broke the mold in politics, right, in many, many ways. One of them is he doesn't speak in a scripted and lawyerly and overly careful manner. Now, at times, it gets him into trouble. I think it got him in a tiny bit of trouble in Montana. I don't think it's a big deal at all. But it got him in a little bit of trouble there. But the flip side of that is, the authenticity is really refreshing and it's the reason that he's the president of the United States today, is because he spoke with an authenticity that the people really appreciated and which they rallied toward.
[Cooper:] Kirsten, these comments come obviously at a time when the world is watching and waiting to see how the U.S. is going to respond to the dismemberment and murder of a "Washington Post" journalist in an embassy, in a consulate of a U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia. You know, I don't know if the timing could be any worse.
[Kirsten Powers, Cnn Political Analyst:] Yes, I think the timing is particularly bad. And I just I don't understand this idea, Steve, that you're putting forward, that this is something that's authentic, that this somehow makes him authentic. It's really unusual behavior for any person to be clapping for somebody who has assaulted anybody, let alone a reporter. I mean, this is not it's not in dispute what happened. And so, he was making it very clear that he supported what happened to this reporter, when in fact he should be condemning it. Let's just start there, he should have condemned it. But rather than condemning it, he is I guess you're making he's making jokes about it, ha ha, it's so funny. I don't get it, what's funny about this?
[Cooper:] Does it encourage violence do you believe? I mean, does it encourage the idea, yeah, it's great to body slam a reporter, reporters can be annoying, asking you pesky questions so body slam them?
[Cortes:] I'm against any form of political violence, any form of unneeded violence, period. But we're talking politics here. Political violence is always wrong. Whether it comes from the right, whether it's neo-Nazis in Charlottesville or whether it's Antifa coming from the left as we've seen lately in Portland and demonstration in Washington, D.C. Political violence is always wrong. In America we should solve our political differences through words, that's tantamount. But let me also say this, if we're going to go down the road of taking the president this seriously, even when he's clearly being funny and clever, are we then supposed to say, for example, people on the left call the president a racist and his supporters, by the way.
[Powers:] What people?
[Cortes:] Every single day
[Powers:] No, no. You have to no, no, but you have to make it a person. You can't just say "people." we're actually talking about the president of the United States. So is it
[Cortes:] Fine, let's personalize it. I watched Jake Tapper show today. Jen Psaki said that he said that white men were under assault, which he never said, OK? So, when you say things like that that are not true
[Powers:] You put that on the same level as talking about assaulting somebody?
[Cortes:] But when you say that, you create you demonize the president and his supporters and you create the conditions by which people feel it's then OK to be violent or at the least to be incredibly intimidating toward them, run them out of restaurants, say they're not welcome in public life. So, that's my point. Again, I'm not defending the president going there in Montana, I think that was a mistake.
[Cooper:] Steve, I would just
[Cortes:] We better be just as harsh on the left.
[Cooper:] I agree with you, Steve, it's abhorrent that any protester would scream at some politician and their family when they're trying to eat in a restaurant in their off hours because they're so filled with self righteous indignation that they feel that's appropriate. I think that's the beginnings of a mob. I think it's completely inappropriate.
[Powers:] Yes.
[Cooper:] If the president of the United States or a politician on the left was saying, you know what, I think it's great that these people are going into restaurants and screaming at Kirstjen Nielsen, I would say, why is this politician promoting this kind of behavior, and that's the question we're asking about the president right now, about somebody who didn't just yell at somebody in a restaurant, who actually did body slam a reporter.
[Cortes:] Right. Listen, I think the president should stick to metaphor, I do. I think he should stick to that. We do need to fight back with our words, with persuasion, with motivation. We need and again, the reason he's the president is because he's an amazing counterpuncher. But that should never be literal, that should always be figurative. And he should be clear about that and I think he will be.
[Cooper:] Right. I mean, the irony is he's never actually punched somebody, it seems, in his life, he just likes to talk about it and pretend that he has, and that he's a tough guy and that's it.
[Cortes:] He went to military school, he was probably fairly physical there, I would guess.
[Cooper:] Well, we'll see. I don't know. Kristen Powers, thanks very much. Steve Cortes, as well, thanks. I wouldn't hold my breath on that. It's a busy Friday night. Right now, a huge crowd of migrants is gathered on a bridge between Guatemala and Mexico. It's been chaotic there all day. And the entire crisis now part of the American election campaign. Later, more on tonight's other breaking news. The Saudi account of Jamal Khashoggi's killing, a shake-up back in the kingdom, drawing questions about whether it's just another piece of a royal cover-up.