Assault charge jolts House race
After startling events on election eve, Montana contest appeared up for grabs.
MISSOULA, Mont. — For John Jepsen, Glacier National Park could wait a bit — especially if it meant keeping Greg Gianforte from a seat in Congress.
Jepsen had planned to head to the park Thursday, but when he learned that Gianforte had been accused of assaulting a newspaper reporter covering the state’s special election, he delayed his trip to cast his ballot for Democrat Rob Quist.
For Jepsen, who is seeking a PhD in history, the message he sought to deliver went beyond Montana.
“If Gianforte wins, it would be a vindication of the worst of this administration’s policies,” Jepsen said, referring to President Trump, “this hatred of the press, this demonization of the press.”
The bizarre events that unfolded on election eve layered a new level of uncertainty over the congressional contest, which had been seen up until then as Republican Gianforte’s to lose.
The wealthy tech entrepreneur was cited for misdemeanor assault Wednesday night after accusations that he body-slammed Ben Jacobs, a journalist for the Guardian newspaper who was asking the candidate about the House GOP’s healthcare legislation.
Democrats put up a lastminute radio spot featuring audio of the altercation and suggesting voters ask themselves, “If Greg Gianforte could be sentenced to jail, should he really be elected to Congress?”
Three of Montana’s largest newspapers, the Missoulian, Helena Independent Record and Billings Gazette, immediately rescinded their endorsement of Gianforte, who has had a reputation in the state for prickliness — especially when dealing with reporters.
“If what was heard on tape and described by eyewitnesses is accurate, the incident in Bozeman is nothing short of assault,” the Gazette editorial board wrote. “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.”
Quist declined to comment on the incident.
In Washington, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan criticized Gianforte and said he should apologize.
“There is no time where a physical altercation should occur with the press or just between human beings,” the Wisconsin Republican told journalists at the Capitol. “So that is wrong and it should not have happened.”
But he stopped short of saying Gianforte would not be welcomed within the House GOP. “If he wins, he has been chosen by the people of Montana,” Ryan said. “I’m going to let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative.”
Montana’s GOP senator, Steve Daines, who worked with Gianforte at his hightech start-up, issued a statement saying, “I do not condone violence in any way.”
Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse also weighed in on Twitter. “A big part of a public servant’s job is teaching civics,” he wrote. “If the First Amendment means anything, it means you can’t body-slam a journalist.”
Gianforte, 56, who ran unsuccessfully for governor 2016, abruptly canceled his scheduled appearances Thursday on Fox News and other programs and offered no response after the Gallatin County Sheriff ’s Office issued the assault citation.
He was ordered to appear in court on or before June 7, and could face a maximum $500 fine or six months in jail if convicted.
The special election was set when Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke vacated the seat to head the Interior Department.
Quist, a bluegrass musician and political newcomer, has benefited from millions of dollars and support from party activists from around the country. But the national party largely withheld its backing while the GOP and its allies strafed the 69year-old with a barrage of negative ads that badly damaged the banjo picker’s homespun image.
In the hours since Gianforte’s altercation with the reporter, Democrats and Quist supporters moved to capitalize on the charges. The liberal group MoveOn placed an online ad that also included audio of the incident, in which a loud crash is heard and Gianforte looses a string of expletives as he angrily scolds the journalist.
But it was uncertain how many voters remained to be persuaded.
More than 250,000 absentee ballots had already been cast by Wednesday, which could amount to more than half the total. That was certain to minimize the impact of the election-eve events.
Payne Stidham of Billings was among those who cast his vote earlier this month, backing Gianforte.
“I don’t know all the facts, so I’m not going to pass judgment,” Stidham said Thursday. “But, I mean, you watch the news and it makes it seem like he beat the crap out of the guy. Did he? I don’t know. I really just do not know.” The 48-year-old sales manager said he was sticking by Gianforte.
Christine Littig, 51, who owns a bakery in heavily Democratic Missoula, voted absentee for Quist.
She called Gianforte a bully and said the body-slam episode was “a total embarrassment for this state.” She suggested Trump, who has assailed individual reporters and called journalists enemies of the state, was partly to blame.
“It’s emboldened people like Gianforte,” Littig said. “So now Montana is giving this bad image to the rest of the country .... We’re supposed to be good role models for our kids, and this is not being a good example.”
As for Jepsen, he said his support for Quist went beyond the events of the last 24 hours. He worried about Gianforte’s position on the environment, he said, especially when it comes to protecting public lands.
“I told my wife today, ‘Glacier is still going to be there,’ ” Jepsen, 35, said after casting his ballot at Missoula’s senior center. “‘But if we don’t vote for Rob Quist, Glacier might not be there next year.’ ”