Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate in Montana’s special House election to replace Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, is accused of “body-slamming” a reporter on Wednesday, the night before the election. Still, the attack wasn’t enough to stop Gianforte from winning the race against Democrat Rob Quist by roughly 7 points.
“Fox News Channel reporter Alicia Acuna, who was preparing to interview Gianforte at the time, said the candidate ‘grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him to the ground,’ ” says Reuters. Acuna, her field producer, and her photographer then “watched in disbelief as Gianforte began punching the reporter,” she wrote on the Fox News website.
Besides picking up an important house seat, Democrats felt that a Quist win would bode well for making inroads in Trump country. Last November, Trump won Montana with 56.5 percent of the vote, and his son Donald Trump Jr. came to the state to campaign on Gianforte’s behalf in a fight where the use of public lands was an important issue. Gianforte, a climate change skeptic and billionaire, took flack for trying to close public access to a portion of riverfront running along his property. Democrats claimed the incident was a sign that Gianforte, like some other Republican politicians in the state, doesn’t value public lands.
While Gianforte now has to appear in court in early June, it appears that the attack wasn’t enough to swing the outcome. More than half of the expected votes had already been cast through early voting before the assault occurred. Some voters even defended the Republican’s actions, saying that the media can be too aggressive.
“I don’t know Greg Gianforte personally, and I don’t know if he’s got a hot temper. But I can understand how somebody could push somebody’s buttons,” Republican voter Tina Stark of Townsend, a suburb of Helena, told The Billings Gazette. “I don’t advocate violence, but when you’re told to back off, you need to back off.”
Not all of Gianforte’s new House peers have stood behind him. “In a sign of the considerable Republican frustration with Mr. Gianforte, Speaker Paul D. Ryan publicly scolded the candidate and said he should apologize. Mr. Ryan said that the ‘physical altercation’ was inappropriate and ‘should not have happened,’ ” says The New York Times. But Ryan also said he wouldn’t block Gianforte from joining the House if elected.