On Friday, GOP Rep. Greg Gianforte confirmed that he’d be giving up his seat in the House to run for governor of Montana. For a tour through Gianforte's failed campaigns and his infamous assault on a reporter, we invite you to delve into our recent catalog of his troubled career. But on this occasion, we'd like to pay special attention to a moment before Gianforte ever ran for anything ... a moment 6,000 years in the making.
Back in 2015, before Gianforte announced he would run for governor against Democratic incumbent Steve Bullock, he gave a speech to the Montana Bible College. In that speech, the wealthy Gianforte not only decried the very concept of retirement, but he invoked Noah—yeah, the Noah—to do so. The school took down the audio of Gianforte’s remarks once they started rocketing around, but luckily, the HuffPost captured a transcript:
"There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today. Nowhere does it say, 'Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.' It doesn't say that anywhere.
"The example I think of is Noah. How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn't hanging out, he was working. So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical."
Gianforte lost that race to Bullock 50-46, but he was soon elected to the House in a 2017 special election. Based on this speech, we should expect another 550 or so years of campaigning from Gianforte.