By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--May 25, 2017
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(Update:Montana Assault Witness Changes Story, Says No Neck Grab Reporter says firsthand account misstated key aspect of Gianforte incident -- Lifezette-- A reporter who was a firsthand witness to an incident late Wednesday involving Montana GOP candidate Greg Gianforte and a reporter for the Guardian now admits she may have misstated some details of her initial story.)Any time the media jump all over a story that looks terrible for a Republican, I smell a rat. And when the poor, innocent victim is a mainstream journalist, I smell a double rat. My instinct is usually that it's all just a little too perfect, and usually when I look into it I find that I was right to trust my instincts. So when I heard that Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate in the upcoming Montana special congressional election, had assaulted a reporter for asking him questions about health care, my first thought was, "What aren't they telling us?" Was the reporter the aggressor?
Ben Jacobs was trying to ask Gianforte about healthcare, according to an audio tape captured by the British newspaper's correspondent. He was taken to the hospital and later released, media reports said. 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." Gianforte was favored in a state where Republicans have held its lone House seat for two decades and where fellow Republican Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. He faces Democrat Rob Quist, a banjo-playing folk singer and first-time candidate, to fill the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated when Trump named Ryan Zinke as secretary of the interior. Quist declined to comment on the incident. Gianforte's campaign did not deny Jacobs' allegation but countered in its own statement that the reporter provoked an altercation by barging into the candidate's office, shoving a recording device in his face and "asking badgering questions."
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