[RT] Montana Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte has been charged with assaulting a reporter hours before polls were due to open on Thursday for a special election.He probably should have just hollered "Can we get some muscle over here?" and the guy woulda known he was serious.
The alleged altercation took place at Gianforte’s campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, on Wednesday. The tech millionaire was in a side room with a local television news crew when Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs attempted to ask his question about the Republican healthcare bill.
“He took me to the ground,” Jacobs told the Guardian. “I think he whaled on me once or twice… He got me and I think he hit me… This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.”
Jacobs reported the incident to the police. The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said there were four witnesses to the incident, in addition to Gianforte and Jacobs. It completed its investigation and “determined there was probable cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanor assault,” Sheriff Brian Gootkin said in a statement.
Gootkin said the nature of the injuries did not meet the statutory conditions for felony assault.
Gianforte's campaign didn’t deny Jacobs’ claim, but countered with its own statement that the reporter had provoked the altercation.
“Jacobs was asked to leave,” the statement read. “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.”
Montana Assault Witness Changes Story, Says No Neck Grab
[LIFEZETTE] A news hound who was a firsthand witness to an incident late Wednesday involving Montana GOP candidate Greg Gianforte and a news hound for the Guardian now admits she may have misstated some details of her initial story.
Guardian news hound Ben Jacobs claimed Gianforte, locked in a hotly contested special election for Congress, body-slammed him and broke his glasses at a campaign event Wednesday. Local authorities have brought misdemeanor assault charges against Gianforte.
There is, so far, no direct video of the incident; only audio has been produced publicly. Among the small handful of eyewitnesses was Fox News news hound Alicia Acuna.
Acuna wrote a report published on Fox News that detailed what happened as Jacobs aggressively questioned Gianforte.
"At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him," she wrote, "Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the news hound. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, ’I’m sick and tired of this!'"
Acuna repeated her initial version of events during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday evening.
"Gianforte grabbed [Jacobs] by the neck, slid him to the side, and body-slammed him, and then got on top of him and started punching," she said.
Details from Acuna's report quickly went viral online, but she said Thursday during an interview on "The Laura Ingraham Show" that she misstated the neck grab.
"One of you guys said last night that he put his hands around his neck," Ingraham said. "Which, as somebody who's done a lot of taekwondo and self-defense, to me that seemed, that might not be exactly right."
"You know, and I'm the one who said that," Acuna replied, "I saw both his hands go up, not around his neck in a strangling type of way, but more just on each side of his neck, just grabbed him and I guess it could've been on his clothes, I don't know."
Ingraham asked Acuna if that meant she was changing her story.
"Again, just to clarify, he didn't grab him by the neck with both hands in the way that was initially described, that's not quite accurate," Ingraham asked at the end of the interview.