The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also condemned the rough handling of Mr. Jacobs, calling<br />the recent spate of incidents involving reporters “an assault on the very core of democratic life.”<br />Representative Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican, said on Thursday<br />that he saw a direct link between the Montana episode and what he described as an erosion of American civic life.<br />“It is not cool,” Ms. Ryan, who encountered brusque treatment herself at a White House press briefing, said in an interview.<br />“Some demons have been unleashed,” Mr. Sanford said in an interview, “which I think<br />are threatening to those who believe in free speech and free governance.”<br />Mr. Sanford described a recent town hall at a retirement community where he found himself having<br />to calm a pair of older adults, who were shouting at each other about President Trump.<br />“There are people who are listening to this dog whistle,” said April Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.<br />Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, said that Mr. Gianforte ought to apologize, even as he declined to withdraw the Republican party’s support.<br />Ms. Ingraham, responding to a reporter’s query in an email, wrote that she was surprised Mr. Gianforte “would erupt that way.”<br />“If you can’t take the heat from reporters without blowing up, then politics isn’t the best career choice,” Ms. Ingraham wrote.
