The Guardian’s Julie Carrie Wong reports:
Greg Gianforte, the Montana Republican who assaulted a Guardian journalist on the eve of his election to the US House of Representatives, has issued a full and unequivocal apology to the reporter and agreed to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The congressman-elect apologized to the reporter, Ben Jacobs, in a letter received late on Wednesday as part of an agreement that settles any potential civil claims.
“My physical response to your legitimate question was unprofessional, unacceptable, and unlawful,” Gianforte wrote. “As both a candidate for office and a public official, I should be held to a high standard in my interactions with the press and the public. My treatment of you did not meet that standard.”
Gianforte has also made an in-person apology directly to Jacobs.
The tech millionaire still faces misdemeanor assault charges that could cost him a pitiful $500 in fines and six months in the slam. But you can bet that he will do zero time in lock-up. Maybe the judge will sentence him to community service and let him use his time in Congress to fulfill that requirement. It’s hard to imagine Jacobs getting off easily if he had been the one charged with assault. Hard to imagine he wouldn’t have gotten dinged for a felony.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident in which he body-slammed Jacobs, breaking his glasses, and punching him repeatedly, Gianforte and his campaign lied about what happened, claiming Jacobs had provoked the attack by aggressively questioning the then-candidate. Gianforte addressed that false claim in his apology, careful to avoid characterizing the lie as a lie:
“Notwithstanding anyone’s statements to the contrary, you did not initiate any physical contact with me, and I had no right to assault you,” he wrote. “I am sorry for what I did and the unwanted notoriety this has created for you. I take full responsibility.”
The congressman then noted the “critical role that journalists and the media play in our society” and the essential nature of constitutional protections afforded the press.
Sounds good. Sounds like a sincere apology without qualifiers or what-abouts or the exculpatory words that so often follow a “but” in such mea culpas. It would, however, have been a bit more convincing if Gianforte hadn’t had to apologize in May to the Missoulian newspaper for seemingly agreeing with a media-hating member of the audience at an event sponsored by the Advancing Conservatism Society.
That person reportedly said: “Our biggest enemy is the news media. How can we rein in the news media?” Gianforte pointed at a reporter and said “We have someone right here. It seems like there is more of us than there is of him.” Milder but nonetheless reminiscent of Donald Trump’s incitement of audiences against the media during his presidential campaign.
Giancorte later told the Billings Gazette that he had just been joking around and said he was sorry. But the Missoulian editorial board didn’t buy that, viewing his statement as “demonstrat[ing] Gianforte’s agreement that news media are ‘the enemy’.”
“While his apology is appreciated,” the board wrote, “Gianforte needs to take pains to set a better example of civility from now on.”
His unprovoked attack on Jacobs shows he obviously didn’t get the Missoulian’s message.
While Jacobs has gracefully accepted Gianforte’s apology, perhaps the judge could assign the congressman attendance at weekly anger-management sessions for his entire term of office.
It’s hard not to speculate that Gianforte and his pals have likely been laughing up their sleeves about this whole affair ever since the voter tally showed that turning Jacobs into a punching bag didn’t cost him the election.