- Thu May 25, 2017 3:09 pm
#88098
Republican candidate charged with assault, roiling Trump's Montana test
A Montana Republican running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat was charged with assaulting a reporter hours before polls opened on Thursday for a special election that could test President Donald Trump's political clout.
The incident on Wednesday roiled a tightening race in the Republican-leaning state, where a Democratic political novice aims to pull off a victory in a contest seen as a bellwether for next year's U.S. congressional elections.
It was not clear what effect the assault charge against Republican technology executive Greg Gianforte would have on the Montana race, where 37 percent of the 699,207 registered voters had already submitted absentee ballots, according to state election officials.
Polls are slated to close at 8 p.m.(0200 GMT).
Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault after Ben Jacobs, a political correspondent for the U.S. edition of the Guardian newspaper, said the candidate "body-slammed" him during a campaign event in Bozeman.
Republican lawmakers criticized Gianforte but stopped short of asking him to withdraw from the race.
"Yeah, I think he should apologize," U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a regular news briefing. "There's no call for this, no matter what, under any circumstance."
Ryan said it was up to Montana voters to pick their representative and he would not attempt to block Gianforte from joining Congress if he wins the election.
Republican U.S. Senator Steve Daines from Montana said in a tweet that Gianforte "needs to apologize."
Jacobs was trying to ask Gianforte about healthcare, according to an audio tape captured by the British newspaper's correspondent.
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."
Acuna, her field producer and photographer then "watched in disbelief as Gianforte began punching the reporter, she wrote on the Fox News website.
"I'm sick and tired of you guys," Gianforte can be heard saying in the audio tape. "The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here."
Jacobs was taken to the hospital and later released, media reports said.
Gianforte was favored in a state where his party has held the lone House seat for two decades and where fellow Republican Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.
A Montana Republican running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat was charged with assaulting a reporter hours before polls opened on Thursday for a special election that could test President Donald Trump's political clout.
The incident on Wednesday roiled a tightening race in the Republican-leaning state, where a Democratic political novice aims to pull off a victory in a contest seen as a bellwether for next year's U.S. congressional elections.
It was not clear what effect the assault charge against Republican technology executive Greg Gianforte would have on the Montana race, where 37 percent of the 699,207 registered voters had already submitted absentee ballots, according to state election officials.
Polls are slated to close at 8 p.m.(0200 GMT).
Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault after Ben Jacobs, a political correspondent for the U.S. edition of the Guardian newspaper, said the candidate "body-slammed" him during a campaign event in Bozeman.
Republican lawmakers criticized Gianforte but stopped short of asking him to withdraw from the race.
"Yeah, I think he should apologize," U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a regular news briefing. "There's no call for this, no matter what, under any circumstance."
Ryan said it was up to Montana voters to pick their representative and he would not attempt to block Gianforte from joining Congress if he wins the election.
Republican U.S. Senator Steve Daines from Montana said in a tweet that Gianforte "needs to apologize."
Jacobs was trying to ask Gianforte about healthcare, according to an audio tape captured by the British newspaper's correspondent.
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."
Acuna, her field producer and photographer then "watched in disbelief as Gianforte began punching the reporter, she wrote on the Fox News website.
"I'm sick and tired of you guys," Gianforte can be heard saying in the audio tape. "The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here."
Jacobs was taken to the hospital and later released, media reports said.
Gianforte was favored in a state where his party has held the lone House seat for two decades and where fellow Republican Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.
- By johnforbes
- By brandon