‘Last Night I Made a Mistake’
Republican Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte Wednesday night allegedly attacked a reporter hours before the polls opened Thursday. For more than 24 hours after the alleged assault (he’s been cited but there’s no legal conviction or resolution yet) Gianforte went silent, as did his campaign. All scheduled interviews, including one with “Meet the Press” were canceled. He did not post anything on Twitter or Facebook.
His campaign did manage to immediately after the attack send out a fundraising email with phrases like “fight back” and “double your impact.”
Gianforte did not even contact the reporter from The Guardian he grabbed by the neck and repeatedly punched – according to the Fox News reporter standing two feet away – to apologize. He did not offer to pay his hospital expenses, or even to just buy him a new pair of glasses. And he did not apologize for or retract the allegations in his campaign press release that were just plain false. It claimed Gianforte “attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face,” and accused the reporter of violence, saying the reporter, Ben Jacobs, “grabbed Greg’s wrist and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground.” And it blamed Jacobs for the entire incident: “it’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene.”
Not until he won the election did Gianforte apologize.
As apologies go, this was among the most passive.
“Last night I made a mistake, and when you make a mistake, you have to own up to it,” Gianforte told his blindly cheering crowd of supporters Thursday night. “That’s the Montana way. Last night I made a mistake and I took an action that I can’t take back and I’m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did and for that I’m sorry.”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes may have had the best take:
Note Gianforte never says, “I should not have hit that reporter.” He never denounces violence or says that a free press is vital to our democracy.
Instead, he “took an action.” That was a “mistake.”
The best part of his statement, which was carefully crafted and which he read aloud, was that he named the reporter.
“I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I’m sorry Mr. Ben Jacobs,” Gianforte said. “That’s not the person I am, and that’s not the way I’ll lead in this state.”
Montana voters should be thrilled to know their billionaire Congressman will not be assaulting reporters who ask basic questions about health care policy, the answers to which will dramatically affect their lives.
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