Montana special election for the House seat just got interesting

[Seattle Husker]

No, it won't be any referendum on Trump of the Republican party. Montana already has a pretty independent streak that doesn't naturally fit party lines. What is interesting is that the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, decided to body slam a reporter in front of a Fox News crew the night before the election. It's a somewhat close race that likely was just handed to the Democrats. For all his business acumen he apparently isn't handling the stress of the campaign well.

Here is the campaigns response which is hilarious in the context of the fox news reporters' piece.

Scanlon is his press rep.

Scanlon later issued a statement saying that Jacobs "entered the [campaign] office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face, and began asking badgering questions."

Later, the statement added, "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."

Major credit to the Foxnews crew who witnessed the event. Clearly the campaign was assuming they'd back up their made up version of the event. Great ethics by those reporters.

 

[UTChE96]

It will be interesting to see how much this hurts him. I suspect that many Republican voters despise the MSM so much now that body slamming a reporter may actually be considered a good thing.

 

[Crockett]

I've spent a lot of time among reporters. Honestly, I've known more than a few that pretty much deserved a body slam ... deliberately provoking ill-tempered athletes and movie stars. Problem is that when they get slammed, they profit enormously from the experience. The slammers ... well we'll see.

 

[Seattle Husker]

It will be interesting to see how much this hurts him. I suspect that many Republican voters despise the MSM so much now that body slamming a reporter may actually be considered a good thing.

I read today that 30% of votes have already been submitted prior to this incident. He was a slight favorite coming into the election. It's irrational to me that anyone could ever consider body slamming a reporter to be a positive thing, especially since by all reports this reporter wasn't being particularly aggressive any moreso than your average reporter.

 

[Seattle Husker]

I've spent a lot of time among reporters. Honestly, I've known more than a few that pretty much deserved a body slam ... deliberately provoking ill-tempered athletes and movie stars. Problem is that when they get slammed, they profit enormously from the experience. The slammers ... well we'll see.

I'm sure this particular reporter will profit through a civil suit. I don't know anything about this particular reporter but based on the Foxnews reporter eye witness perspective this guy was simply doing his job, not in any "aggressive" way that Gianforte is claiming.

 

[I35]

Major credit to the Foxnews crew who witnessed the event. Clearly the campaign was assuming they'd back up their made up version of the event. Great ethics by those reporters.

If it were a CNN, MSNBC, or any of the MSM crew that witnessed a democrat candidate body slam a Fox New reporter they would not have seen anything. They went from having very little ethics to zero ethics this past year.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Because I'd pretty much never get physical with anybody except to prevent death or serious bodily injury to myself or someone else, it's a bit baffling to me when someone does it. I just can't imagine a mature adult being that stupid. However, will it actually flip this election? Hard to say. In the most recent poll I've seen, Quist was losing by 14 points. I'd be surprised if a misdemeanor assault charge is enough to flip the polls that hard, especially considering how hard left Quist is.

 

[iatrogenic]

Given the public's low regard for the press, this may create a landslide victory for him.

 

[ProdigalHorn]

It doesn't surprise me that someone would have that kind of an idiotic impulse. It surprises me that he got to this point in his life without doing something that would make him unelectable.

But again, Montana's a big state. Lots of places to hide stuff.

 

[Crockett]

It is Montana. Not that many people. I had a friend who while growing up in New Mexico was visiting with a kindred spirit he met at a conference. "What does you dad do?" he asked his new friend. "He's the governor" was the reply

 

[mchammer]

One reporter tweeted that she could not find one voter who changed their mind because of this.

 

[mchammer]

Doesn't appear a Dem could win dogcatcher. What a laughing stock. Then again, when Maxine Waters is the face of your party?

 

[Mr. Deez]

Doesn't appear a Dem could win dogcatcher. What a laughing stock. Then again, when Maxine Waters is the face of your party?

They have a Democratic governor, Lt. Gov, and US Senator, and a Democrat held the at-large House seat back in the '90s. However, they were always moderate Democrats. They weren't part of the freak show that currently runs the party at the national level.