Karen Handel Tells Reporter Who Was Body-Slammed by a GOP Candidate Journalism Has Fueled ‘Lack of Civility’

‘The Anger Has Been From the Left’ Handel Claims

The Georgia election is almost over but Karen Handel isn’t finished making news. The Republican congressional candidate (as of this writing) granted The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs an interview Monday. Jacobs, of course, is the reporter who was “body slammed” by now Republican Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte.

“As voters go to the polls in a fiercely competitive special election in Georgia involving record spending, the Republican candidate has blamed social media and journalism for fueling a lack of civility in American society,” Jacobs writes.

“Speaking to the Guardian before a lunchtime event in Marietta on Monday, Karen Handel said a ‘lack of civility in society’ was fueled by social media and ‘the fact that journalism is not journalism anymore.'”

The interview sounds like a jaw-dropper.

Here’s an excerpt:

“It’s tabloid. It’s 24/7 news – people get in the middle of a news cycle for 24 hours off of things that previously would never have gotten the kind of coverage that is happening.”

In response to a quizzical follow-up – “So you point the fingers at the journalism, then?” – Handel said: “No, don’t put words in my mouth, Ben. 

“I had a very broad sentence. See, this is exactly what happens and why things are really broken. You don’t listen and you put words in people’s mouth.”

The Guardian said: “I was trying to clarify.” 

Handel responded: “No, you really weren’t. But what I said was the following: there is a lack of civility in society as a whole, social media has been fueling it, journalism has been fueling it.”

Asked if the issue was partisan, Handel said: “I can only tell you what I have observed in this race. The anger has been from the left with groups of trackers showing up and literally adopting a gang-like posture and virtually stalking individuals.”

OK then.

Jacobs posted this to Twitter:

Polls close in an hour.

Hopefully Handel won’t be talking with reporters any time soon.

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