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