Fight!! Fight!! Fight!!!

[Gob]

The Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat slammed a Guardian reporter to the floor on the eve of the state’s special election, breaking his glasses and shouting, “Get the hell out of here.”

Ben Jacobs, a Guardian political reporter, was asking Greg Gianforte, a tech millionaire running for the seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate allegedly “body-slammed” the reporter.

“He took me to the ground,” Jacobs said by phone from the back of an ambulance. “This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.”

Jacobs subsequently reported the incident to the police. The Gallatin County sheriff’s office is investigating the incident.

A statement by campaign spokesman Shane Scanlon blamed Jacobs for the incident, saying that he “entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions”.

“Jacobs was asked to leave,” the statement reads. “After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground.

“It’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.”

Scanlon’s account appears to be contradicted by audio of the abortive interview recorded by Jacobs. The audio does not capture Jacobs being asked to leave or lower his recorder, but does contain an apparent reference to the Guardian’s previous attempts to report on Gianforte. “I’m sick and tired of you guys,” Gianforte said. “The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian?”

“Yes! You just broke my glasses,” Jacobs replied.

“The last guy did the same damn thing,” Gianforte said.

“You just body slammed me and broke my glasses,” Jacobs said.

“Get the hell out of here,” Gianforte yelled.

The altercation took place at Gianforte’s campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. Gianforte was in a side room with a local television news crew when Jacobs attempted to ask his question, according to Jacobs.

“I decided there was no harm in asking one question, and the worst thing that could happen was they would tell me to go to hell,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs’s account was partially confirmed by BuzzFeed News reporter Alexis Levinson, who wrote on Twitter that she had been in an adjacent room during the incident.

“This happened behind a half closed door, so I didn’t see it all, but here’s what it looked like from the outside – Ben walked into a room where a local tv crew was set up for an interview with Gianforte. All of a sudden I heard a giant crash and saw Ben’s feet fly in the air as he hit the floor. Heard very angry yelling (as did all the volunteers in the room) – sounded like Gianforte...”

Levinson later tweeted Gianforte left the event without speaking and that the Gallatin County Sheriffs department was taking witness statements.

[BoSoxGal]

Sadly, MANY Montanans will only like Gianforte better for having done this.

I don't miss it.

[RayThom]

This sounds like fake news to me. I bet the Guardian reporter attacked the poor, misunderstood, candidate.

[BoSoxGal]

The local FOX station reporters who were in the room released a statement saying the poor misunderstood candidate grabbed the Guardian reporter by the neck with both hands, slammed him to the floor and started punching him while shouting, "I'm sick of this!"

Seems he is perfectly qualified for the current GOP.

If the rubes in Montana elect him, he'll soon be a Congressman charged with assault - unless Marty Lambert is a bigger puke than I ever realized when I knew him as a colleague.

[BoSoxGal]

Update: following the FOX reporters' statements, the Gallatin County SO has cited Gianforte with misdeamor assault and set a court date for his arraignment.

Bwahahaha! More criminals in the GOP!

[Guinevere]

The Billings Gazette rescinded its endorsement of him:

http://billingsgazette.com/opinion/edit ... cb11f.html

We're at a loss for words.

And as people who wrangle words on a minute-by-minute basis, that doesn't happen often.

What happens even less — hopefully never again — is a Montana candidate assaulting a reporter. While there are still questions left unanswered about GOP House hopeful Greg Gianforte's altercation with Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, eyewitness accounts, law enforcement investigations and records are all shocking, disturbing and without precedent.

That's why The Billings Gazette editorial board is also doing something without precedent: We're rescinding our editorial endorsement of Greg Gianforte.

Although we're greatly troubled by this action against a member of the media who was just doing his job, to make this an issue of media intrusion or even a passionate defense of the role of a free press during an election would be to miss the point.

If what was heard on tape and described by eye-witnesses is accurate, the incident in Bozeman is nothing short of assault. We wouldn't condone it if it happened on the street. We wouldn't condone it if it happened in a home or even a late-night bar fight. And we couldn't accept it from a man who is running to become Montana's lone Congressional representative.

We will not stand by that kind of violence, period.

We previously supported Gianforte because he said he was ready to listen, to compromise, to take the tough questions. Everything he said was obliterated by his surprising actions that were recorded and witnessed Wednesday. We simply cannot trust him. Because trust — not agreement — is essential in the role of representative, we cannot stand by him.

While we clearly made a poor choice in our original endorsement, an even bigger mistake would have been to stand by it, or say nothing even though this editorial appears on Election Day and may open us to criticism of trying to unduly influence the outcome.

We'd point out that all the other questionable interactions Gianforte had with reporters, including one case where he joked about ganging up on a reporter, must now be seen through a much more sinister lens. What he passed off as a joke at the time now becomes much more serious.

To the voters who have not voted yet, we simply urge you to evaluate each candidate very carefully and make the best choice.

To those who have voted: Unfortunately, Montana does not allow those who voted early to reconsider and vote again. We're one of the few states that does not. This would seem to be the best reason we should urge our state leaders to change that law.

We understand that not all the facts about the case have come out, and that Gianforte should be allowed due process. But the eye-witness accounts and the recordings have stunned us. And a citation by the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office makes this more than a misunderstanding that can be spun by campaign staff.

We also hope that other longer-term lessons can be realized from this bizarre, deplorable scuffle.

First, we hope that Republican party members and leaders call this for what it appears to be, an inexcusable act. We hope that partisan politics has not eroded our decency to the point where leaders and supporters feel the need to defend the indefensible.

Speaking of which, the Gianforte campaign should be appalled by its statement that would seem to justify the fight when it said the Bozeman Republican had tussled with a "liberal journalist." How would the campaign have known the reporter's political beliefs? And, is it suggesting that it's acceptable to put your hands on a reporter if you believe their political views are different from yours?

We also hope that this incident will cause us to take a long look in the mirror and a few deep breaths. This incident is not Montana. It's not America. It's not who we are, and attacking — literally — those with whom we disagree cannot be justified, tolerated or explained away. We must adopt zero tolerance for such behavior if freedom of expression means anything.

After voting, we'd suggest that residents in and around Billings attend the gathering at the Billings Public Library, "Civility in America" from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday. It appears that we all need a refresher course on it.

We believe that you cannot love America, love the Constitution, talk about the importance of a free press and then pummel a reporter.

Beyond that, if Gianforte didn't have the good and common sense to simply walk away from questions he didn't like, we cannot believe he's going to be able to make much more difficult, complex decisions when he's in Congress.

In no way would we want our readers or our community to believe we stood behind what appears to be an assault or an attack.

We do not, and we do not endorse Gianforte.

[Guinevere]

The Missoulian as well http://missoulian.com/opinion/editorial ... 94EB6BB03B

[Lord Jim]

This is very unfortunate, because now if the Democratic candidate wins a lot of GOP Congressional types might start thinking, "okay, this is a one off aberration because of what the idiot GOP candidate did the day before the election"...

Rather then, "Wow, my seat isn't any more red than this one. Maybe I should re-think my support for Donald Trump"....

[Guinevere]

It isn't unfortunate that a man running for federal office assaulted a reporter, in part because he characterized that reporter as a "liberal?"

[Lord Jim]

Yeah, sure, that too...

I'm looking at the politics of this...

I said before that I wanted my party to lose some of these Congressional special elections that they should have won easily to give them a wake up call about the cost of hanging tight with Trump...

I'm pointing out that (at least from my view) this incident is unfortunate because it has diminished the wake up call value of this particular special election.

[Guinevere]

Not necessarily. This scumbucket is just another symptom of Tumpanzeeism gone amuck. It would be delicious if Montana ends up being the tipping point for the Rs to lose control of the House in 2018.

[Lord Jim]

In any event, I certainly agree that without regard to the larger political context, a person who engages in this sort of behavior should never be serving in the United States House of Representatives...

This also brings into sharp relief the perils of large scale early voting...

I saw Steve Kornacki a few minutes ago reporting that as much as 2/3rds of the vote for this election may already have been cast with mail-in ballots...

[Burning Petard]

Except this will have a very small impact on the actual vote tally. Most of the votes have already been cast, as part of Montana'a early voting option.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

Montana doesn't allow early voters to change their ballot on Election Day.

But seriously folks, you don't know Montana. Most of the people who voted or planned to vote for Gianforte are thrilled with this incident - he's no liberal pussy!!!!! That reporter had it coming!!!!! Blah, blah, blah . . . the comments on Facebook and the local newspaper coverage are sickening. Yes, there are people expressing appropriate shock and outrage - but not enough.

Montana is a gorgeous place with some very good-hearted people - but it's also ground zero for backward, anti-government, racist, sexist, aggressive ugliness. Gianforte will be elected today.

[Joe Guy]

Some reporters are so pushy and in your face that I'd like to see more of them body slammed. They seem to think they are entitled to be assholes because we have a free press.

But in this case the politician/body slammer was a republican, so I know he is a despicable man and is being controlled by Trump and is stupid like all republicans.

yrs,
tendentiousato

[BoSoxGal]

Paul Ryan calls on Montana candidate to apologize for assaulting Guardian reporter

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ben-jacobs

[RayThom]

My prediction? Gianforte WINS!

Bigly. Might makes right!

Montana... by counties.

[Scooter]

There were reports that this race was tightening long before this incident. Both parties have been pumping huge amounts of money into this race. Wouldn't be happening if they didn't believe this seat was in play.

[MajGenl.Meade]

it said the Bozeman Republican had tussled with a "liberal journalist."

Utter rubbish. The Grauniad has consistently described him as a "lirebal janitor".

(for Gob)

[Gob]