Three Montana newspapers Thursday rescinded their endorsements of Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte after he was charged overnight with assaulting a reporter.
Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault for grabbing reporter Ben Jacobs of The Guardian by the neck and throwing him to the ground.
Montana's special House election takes place Thursday. Mr. Gianforte and Democrat Rob Quist, who has not commented on the incident, are seeking to fill the state’s seat in the U.S. House left vacant when Ryan Zinke resigned to join Trump’s Cabinet as secretary of the Interior Department.
During the day on Wednesday, Mr. Gianforte took to Twitter to celebrate his endorsements from the Missoulian, the Billings Gazette and the Independent Record.
But within hours, newspapers in Missoula, Billings and Helena had changed their minds and rescinded their endorsements of Mr. Gianforte:
Missoulian rescinds Gianforte endorsement https://t.co/QMEWH67aJE via @missoulian
— missoulian (@missoulian) May 25, 2017
“He does not represent Montana values and he should not represent us in Congress.” https://t.co/RXeRg7gUwI
— missoulian (@missoulian) May 25, 2017
In rescinding its endorsement, the Billings Gazette said: “We simply cannot trust him. ... Eyewitness accounts, law enforcement investigations and records are all shocking, disturbing and without precedent. ... We will not stand by that kind of violence, period.
“We believe that you cannot love America, love the Constitution, talk about the importance of a free press and then pummel a reporter.”
In withdrawing its endorsement, the Helena Independent Record said “We cannot condone that kind of violence. .. We are also sick and tired – of Gianforte’s incessant attacks on the free press. In the past, he has encouraged his supporters to boycott certain newspapers, singled out a reporter in a room to point out that he was outnumbered, and even made a joke out of the notion of choking a news writer, and these are not things we can continue to brush off.”
“We take our endorsements seriously and retracting an endorsement even more seriously, but we cannot in good faith continue to support this candidate,” the Helena Independent Record said.
House Democrats released a digital ad featuring the audio recording, and Republicans were wondering what to do with a candidate who suddenly had a court date next month.
Washington-based Republicans were already grumbling about having to spend millions of dollars on behalf of Mr. Gianforte, who is a multimillionaire.
Gazette opinion: We're pulling our endorsement of Gianforte #mtpol #mtal #montana https://t.co/amLeMrFwJj pic.twitter.com/kJy2BCg2eO
— Billings Gazette (@billingsgazette) May 25, 2017
First Published: May 25, 2017, 11:47 a.m.