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Updated at 10.30pm
A REPUBLICAN HAS been told by senior politician Paul Ryan that he should apologise after he allegedly “bodyslammed” a reporter for The Guardian yesterday on the eve of the state’s hotly contested vote.
The altercation between Greg Gianforte – who is running for the state’s only congressional seat in today’s special election – and journalist Ben Jacobs took place at a campaign event at Gianforte’s headquarters in the city of Bozeman, Montana, The Guardian said.
“I think he should apologise,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said when asked about Gianforte’s confrontation with reporter Ben Jacobs, who says he was “bodyslammed,” or violently thrown to the ground.
That is wrong and should not have happened.
But he declined to say whether Gianforte would be welcome in Congress should he win the special election.
Assault
“Following multiple interviews and an investigation by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office it was determined there was probable cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanour assault,” said a statement from Sheriff Brian Gootkin released late last night.
The Republican is now slated to appear in county court prior to 7 June, the statement said, with a possible penalty of up to six months in county jail and a $500 fine.
Gootkin also disclosed that he had in March donated $250 to Gianforte’s campaign.
The development heightened the drama of an already highly scrutinised special election in the traditional Republican stronghold of Montana, which has proved to be a far closer race than expected.
It is seen as a key test of whether rural voters who helped send Donald Trump to the White House in November are sticking with him.
The altercation took place after Jacobs asked a question about health care.
‘Get the hell out!’
The reporter posted audio of the incident in which Gianforte appears to say: “The last time you came in here you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here!”
Police said they questioned four witnesses to the incident.
Others at the event corroborated the version of events – including a crew from Fox News, the most viewed US cable news channel and a favourite of conservatives.
In a firsthand account published on the network’s website a Fox reporter said that at one point “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him onto the ground behind him”.
Gianforte’s campaign issued a statement offering a starkly contrasting account, saying the incident took place when the candidate was giving a separate interview in a private office.
“The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions,” the statement said.
Jacobs was asked to leave. 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 behaviour from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.
On Jacobs’s audio, businessman Gianforte is not heard asking him to lower his microphone.
When Jacobs asks for the names of those present, saying he would go to the police, he is told, “you gotta leave”.
‘Deeply appalled’
Following the incident two of the state’s major newspapers swiftly pulled their endorsements for Gianforte. The effect of the altercation on the race remained unclear, however, as many in the state have cast early ballots.
Jeremy Johnson, an associate professor of political science at Carroll College in the state capital Helena, earlier told AFP that the lead once enjoyed by Gianforte, who is running against Democrat Rob Quist, “has diminished in polling so much that it’s miniscule”.
The platform of Quist, a local folk singer and political newcomer, has garnered support from left-wing activists as well as backing from one-time presidential contender Bernie Sanders.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has called on Gianforte to resign, saying he is “unhinged”.
“Greg Gianforte must immediately withdraw his candidacy after his alleged violent assault of an innocent journalist,” spokesman Tyler Law said in a statement.
Further, (House Speaker Paul) Ryan and the National Republican Campaign Committee should not waste another minute before publicly denouncing their candidate and apologising for the millions of dollars they spent on his behalf.
The Guardian’s US editor Lee Glendinning said the newspaper was “deeply appalled by how our reporter, Ben Jacobs, was treated in the course of doing his job as a journalist while reporting on the Montana special election”.
We are committed to holding power to account and we stand by Ben and our team of reporters for the questions they ask and the reporting that is produced.
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It’s the governments fault there is a homeless crisis. Taxing vacant houses won’t fix the housing crisis for the simple reason with inflation the majority of the Irish people couldn’t afford to buy one of these houses and then spend 10s of thousands to modernise them. All the government is doing is pointing the finger at their failure to build social and affordable housing at someone else while turning it into a money making scheme. The sad thing is the majority of commenters on here will fall for it.
@: Bring back the window tax. All those Grand Designs inspired glass houses stuck to the back of bungalows. Way too much time on their hands. Tax opulence ffs. There was a time when showy offy A holes were frowned upon.
Exactly blaming property owners and landlords as usual it’s nobody’s business what someone does with their property maybe the government should build thousands of affordable homes instead with the billions recieved in corporate tax.
@Louis Jacob: The Brits brought that in to punish the poor. It’s the rich we should be punishing, they’ve got a free ride for far too long
@: No they wont. Hpusing is not all the responsibility of the government. It’s not i the constitution.
Developers and Vukture funds should be hit and hit hard.
Council Management should be questioned as to why they are not doing more as shuld the Dept of Lical Government as the Minister says he wants housing built and quickly.
You wil find the same people holding housing like a lot of things back.
Givernment iofficals and teo of the parties wont spend on housing they prefer their own persobal projects.
Property taxes only make sense in urban areas where there are actual services. In rural Ireland we pay thousands of euro to treat our own wastewater on site by way of a septic system, we have no street lighting, nor do we want any, we have private group water schemes which we already have to pay for, we pay higher standing charges for electricity and we pay more carbon tax through fuel tax to pay for roads so, No, no more taxes please and thank you.
@MTB Mayo: unless you don’t live in your house and are leaving it empty why you be paying a vacant property tax?
@MTB Mayo: In Dublin we pay property taxes and our money is then given to other councils to sort out theor issues.
If DCC and the other Duublin Councils got our proplerty tax, we would be flying, roads fixed , footpaths fixed and all the rest.
Instead they take our money and send it west!
The landlords are being chased out, rental property has become a liability, over regulation has done what over regulation does , cut supply and push up rent.
Get rid of the over regulation , and properties will become available to rent.
This is sensible. However there is more and more disincentives to let property on the way, so there will be less property to rent, and more people who cannot afford a mortgage left without a home.
This cycle is getting worse .
@tk: Landlords aren’t being chased put of anywhere. All of the data shows this. That lie is lazy, but effective, neoliberal BS
@tk: Over regulation, like for escapes and no damp.
Sure lets go back to the 80s with a bang. Still plenty of them out there still.
The call iused to be think of thr “poor Farmers” now it is thing of the “poor Landlords”.
That has been worn out at this stage.
Can the journal go any further left at this stage
@Dixie diver: You really need to get out of the left-right mindset. It’s an illusion. What we actually have is globalists and their enablers vs nationalists. I am proud to say that I am the latter.
@Dixie diver: more mindless trumpism
@Dixie diver: hopefully
Driving through any town or village in Ireland,it’s saddening and sickening how many previous homes or commercial properties are boarded up and lying idle. These need to be taken over if unused for more than 5 years. Refurbished into homes/reopened as startup business enterprises,community groups. Anything to bring back a bit of life to the community is better than locals passing by a decaying building every day.
What the F is up with the Journal❓❗️
Should be renamed ‘Comments Closed’.
@No Label: and the spelling in this article is ‘unacceptible’
Some years ago I considered buying a vacant property in a midland town. Terraced, structurally sound, just needed complete renovation inside. Price €15,000. Seemed like a bargain.
That’s until I got an estimate for the renovations. It would have cost more than buying one of the adjacent properties that were in good condition. There’s the problem. Taxing the owner won’t solve that.
@Fran Ken: if you can’t afford the renovations then simply sell up, because in ten years time the cost is gonna be double. You can also renovate in phases, you can shop around and see if you can get cheaper quotes. The idea of holding onto to properties for years and years because you can “afford” the renovation is why there’s so many empty places around the place.
There was a change in law around 2014 that removed the decision making for local and county councils when it came to housing, that’s one reason house building stopped. The change of regulations around bedsits and houses converted into flats that removed them from the rental market led to a restriction in supply which has only gotten worse over time. The decision to allow outside investment in Irish properties, those pension funds and REITs, has proven to be a disaster for Irish society. In any situation the root cause can be traced to whomever is making money from what’s going on. FF and FG have engineered this over the last 26 years, be it through Charlie McCreevy’s reckless carelessness approved by Bertie Ahern that built our economy up to fall, Bertie’s corrupt attitude that led to his downfall, his abdication timed so that Brian Cowen was left with a clueless expression when the crash happened, the crash that had been warned about for years, the FG decisions from 2011 have developed on that to create this cold, heartless, money driven country we live in now. Shame on all of them for what they’ve collectively done to us
@James K.: Left, left of what, theis is a centre article nowhere near left.
So blame Bertie, easy shot. As Finanace Ministrer he brought us back fro the brink after FGtanked the economy.
The teo who followed hin in that position who were party decisions messed it all up.
After the two of them you had Noonan, so the workers and the pensioners etc were the last thing he and his party ever think of.
FG cancelled the housing nobody else.
Cry me a river Ciarán Casey. Thankfully you’re are just opinions, which I can tolerate. You might fit in well in a communist society, you’d probably run the local collective farm.
@Chris Thaunton: and you might fit in well in a pile of Tories, in fact I’d say you would. Not an ounce of sense or compassion between ye
Those hoarding property are working in the Dail
Missing the point,the problem lays in the fact that many TD’s including Sinn Fein are landlords.Nothing will change.Any resources we have as a country has been sold off,NAMA is probably the biggest culprit of this,the rest of us still paying the bailout of the financial institutions while they still make enormous profits.We need to wake up we’re nothing but livestock
@Trout: Prove it as the members property holding are all there to read.
We have some who are big time into property but most are not. Mayve an office with a flat above it, or a flat in Dublin.
This guy is an absolutely clueless communist, my whole childhood I grew up taking care of cows and pigs in a poor rural area in Eastern Europe, and now I’m 27 with a level 9 degree and house owner. “Few of us manage to climb far up the economic ladder in one lifetime”, yeah right, work your ass and stop waiting to be spoon fed by the government and you will climb anywhere you want! I know loads and loads of people who grew up in poor disadvantaged families and they managed to climb up economically, stop making excuses and get to work
What a langer
Lestat de Lioncourt, or a similar vampire could be hibernating beneath one of these houses. What? you don’t believe in vampires? Tis October.
Spot on:
“Soft Costs” have made housing unaffordable in Ireland.
Now at 51% as per the Report: VAT, Council levies, inflated land prices …
No VAT or other taxes on housing in other countries.
Because, as every Economist knows, housing is a basic need and fundamental requirement for life and so cannot be taxed as with food, water, medicine, healthcare, education … etc.
This is enshrined in the Constitutions of most other countries, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden …
The Irish Constitution is badly flawed in this respect and needs to be urgently fixed by a Referendum on Housing to upgrade it. Why is this Referendum not run with the 2 proposed next Spring? … “Far from Right” to prevent citizens from fixing this badly damaging aspect of the Irish Constitution.
No one can fix the Irish “Affordable” Housing crisis until this Referendum is passed – as clearly evidenced by the damming Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) report. ………… Not even Sinn Fein!
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