What a fucking psychopath. Too bad this didn’t happen days ago.
Gianforte statement (wildly inconsistent with the audio)
According to Mother Jones, ~250K Montanans have already voted by mail, so the effect of this incident on the outcome may be pretty limited.
And Gallatin County sheriff’s office will have a press conference at 8pm MST (not sure if they really meant standard time, which is an hour later than daylight time). So that’s 10pm EDT if they really meant daylight time, 11pm EDT if they meant standard.
Yeah that’s about half of how many voted the past election so undoubtedly more than half of who’ll vote this time. Still, that’s a pretty ugly incident so who knows.
How sad is it that I don’t know if attacking a reporter will hurt or help him as a Republican?
Psychotic behavior that gets the CBO report off the front page? He’s a natural!
Let’s say he wins the election but is convicted of some kind of assault and/or battery (which seems a fair bet given the eyewitness accounts from the Fox News team, coupled with the audio). What affect, if any, does that have on his ability to serve?
From the Fox News account: “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, “I’m sick and tired of this!””
Missoulian, Billings Gazette rescind Gianforte endorsements
Billings Gazette: “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.”
Right now, he’s “only” charged with a misdemeanor, as far as I can tell. Does this incident have enough to be upped to a felony?
Why isn’t he in jail? It’s because the sheriff donated money to his campaign. It will be interesting to see if this tips the vote for or against him. Keep in mind that the voters of this state also voted overwhelmingly for someone that confessed to being a sexual predator.
Probably as good a time as any to point out that the President of the United States has called the press the “enemy of the people”.
Can he use his one phone call to call in a vote?
And Gianforte has a track record of threatening the press too. Up until yesterday, it was in that sort of way where you can say later that you were just joking, but.
The sheriff says no.
Maximum sentence is $500 or six months in jail. Something tells me that a sitting representative wouldn’t serve the time.
Here’s Montana’s statute on felony assault.
Well it’s a shame that apparently no cameras were rolling.
From Johnny Bravo’s link:
[QUOTE=Montana Code Annotated 2015]
45-5-202. Aggravated assault. (1) A person commits the offense of aggravated assault if the person purposely or knowingly causes serious bodily injury to another or purposely or knowingly, with the use of physical force or contact, causes reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury or death in another.
[/QUOTE]
IANAL, but if that’s the only statute that potentially applies beyond the misdemeanor statute, I agree with the sheriff. Did Gianforte “purposely or knowingly, with the use of physical force or contact, cause [the reporter] reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury”? IMHO, that’s quite a stretch.
This is a really disheartening development both for the continuance of civil society and for my increasingly-at-risk $40.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the reporter he assaulted published a story on his financial ties to Russia companies under sanction.