Rep. Greg Gianforte delivered an 8-minute speech before President Donald Trump’s arrival at least week's Make America Great Again rally in Missoula.

Taking the podium, Gianforte said the nation has turned the corner from the days of former president Barack Obama. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, he added, are restoring hope.

“Can you imagine if Hillary was president? If Chuck Schumer ran the Senate and Nancy Pelosi ran the House?” Gianforte said. “We would be back to a failed set of policies with liberal judges, higher taxes, out of control regulations. We’d still be in the war on coal. We’d have open borders and a sluggish economy.”

Gianforte is in a tight race with Democratic challenger Kathleen Williams, who has taken her own shots at Gianforte, calling him a hypocrite on taxes who doesn’t fully understand the role of Congress.

But Gianforte has received the president's endorsement and full admiration.

“Never wrestle him. Never,” Trump said of Gianforte. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of … he’s my guy.”

The president simulated a body slam like that which landed Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper, in a Bozeman emergency room after a confrontation with Gianforte on election eve in May 2017.

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