Trump Comments After Gianforte Wins Montana House Election After Assaulting Reporter
BLITZER: A Republican candidate wins the Montana special election 24 hours after he was charged with assaulting a news reporter. Greg Gianforte defeated Rob Quist in the race for Montana's House of Representatives seat. During his victory speech Gianforte apologized for his awful behavior.</s>GREG GIANFORTE, (R), REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT, MONTANA: I'm not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did. And for that, I'm sorry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're forgiven.</s>GIANFORTE: Please.</s>GIANFORTE: And I should not have treated that reporter that way. And for that, I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs. You deserve a congressman who stays out of the limelight and just gets the job done.</s>BLITZER: President Trump went out of his way to comment on Gianforte's win while he was over at the G-7 summit in Sicily.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Great win in Montana.</s>BLITZER: He whispered to the news media, "Great win in Montana." Our congressional correspondent, Phil Mattingly, is joining us with reaction from Capitol Hill. Phil, what are you hearing from lawmakers?</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's no surprise that lawmakers after they left for recess and after the charges were filed were not rushing to the cameras to defend the action. Most were very clear, it was out of line. It was uncalled for. However, they did not say it was disqualifying. That said, the speaker had very blunt words.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: There is no time where a physical altercation should occur with the press or just between human beings. So that is wrong and should not have happened. Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, I think he should apologize. I know he has his own version and I'm sure he's going to have more to say, but there's no call for this, no matter under any circumstance.</s>MATTINGLY: Wolf, it's notable that despite that speech the speaker made it very clear, if he won, he would be seated. It's something he echoed in his statement after the victory last night. Here's what he said. Basically, elections are about consequences. This is from Ryan's spokesman" "Selecting Gianforte to represent them in Congress, he goes on to talk about what he brought to the table but the most noteworthy line was the last one. He will bring that experience to Congress where he will be a valuable voice in the House." It's worth noting, Montana Democrats say he should not be sworn in until charges are resolved one way or the other. Speaker Ryan making it clear, they are not going to wait. Montana voted and it's a statewide election in the state of Montana and, therefore, he will be sworn in. An interesting element of this that everybody is trying to figure out is what does this mean for the national landscape of things. It's very difficult to know in this election but Gianforte won statewide and lost to a Democrat in 2016. The Democratic opponent he had didn't exactly thrill a lot of Democratic consultants, and Republicans dumped a ton of money into this. While this was a state that President Trump won by 20 points, Gianforte only won by six, it was noteworthy that the Democratic opponent very rarely mentioned President Trump's name. He's still popular in states, not surprisingly, that he won by 20 points. There's no question about it, when you look at these special elections going forward, people are trying to figure out if messages will work nationwide. Wolf, I will say this, this race is not a great indicator but, for Republicans, a victory. They are happy, despite the circumstances, that surrounded it the last 48 hours.</s>BLITZER: I hope Gianforte learned his lesson. Once he arrives where you are up on Capitol Hill, you and Manu and other congressional correspondents, you're going to be chasing him with microphones and let's hope he responds as he should.</s>MATTINGLY: Every day.</s>BLITZER: Phil Mattingly, thanks very much.</s>MATTINGLY: Thanks, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that blocks President Trump's travel ban against six Muslim-majority nations. Now the Trump administration says it's taking its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have details.