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Assault Is Wrong
Greg Gianforte.
The first question you have to wonder about concerning the assault and battery allegedly committed by Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte is: How could he possibly have put out a miserable, lying cover story when there were at least four witnesses in the room? The second question is: Do you regret early voting yet?
Here’s the account from Greg Gianforte’s press aide Shane Scanlon:
Tonight, as Greg was giving a separate interview in a private office, The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions. Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.
Whoa. I guess the “liberal journalist” had it coming. Sure enough, there were several Republican provocateurs ready to justify an unprovoked physical attack on a journalist. I’ll come to those, but first, consider that three Fox News journalists and a reporter for BuzzFeed were in the room and saw what happened. Fox’s Alicia Acuna released a statement within hours describing things a bit differently. She and her crew were setting up for a taped interview. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian newspaper entered the room, put a microphone near Gianforte’s face, and asked questions about the CBO report on the Republican health care plan. (Who knew that those were fighting words?) Acuna continued:
Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon. At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names. In shock, we did not answer. Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. At that point, I told him and Scanlon, who was now present, that we needed a moment. The men then left.
Jacobs’s cell phone recorded all of it. Alexis Levinson of BuzzFeed was apparently in the room as well. She tweeted “Ben walked into a room where a local tv crew was set up for an interview with Gianforte. All of a sudden I heard a giant crash and saw Ben’s feet fly in the air as he hit the floor.” Greg Gianforte appears to be guilty not just of the attack, but of attempting to smear his victim. Note that he apologized to the people he had not wronged, but not to the one he had.
In the ordinary course of politics, some overheated or criminal supporter of this or that candidate will do something felonious or (more often) tasteless and it falls to the candidate to condemn it and mouth platitudes about respect for civility, your right to say it, and the rule of law. For the candidate himself to be the (alleged) criminal is a little out of the ordinary.
But the age of Trump has corrupted a great many people and shattered norms. Those whose moral compass has long since been stashed in the bottom drawer defending the indefensible piled on to applaud Gianforte’s thuggishness. The Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell tweeted “Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest, first class jerk. I’m not surprised he got smacked.” (For the record, I’ve known Bozell for decades and hope this was a momentary lapse of judgment. We’ve all experienced the itchy Twitter finger.)
Laura Ingraham chose to impugn Jacobs’ manhood: “Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would most Montana men do if ‘body slammed’ for no reason by another man?” She followed up with “Did anyone get his lunch money stolen today and then run to tell the recess monitor?”
Dinesh D’Souza struck the same tone, calling Jacobs a “crybaby,” and also implying that the story was a “scam” perpetrated by Jacobs to swing the election to the Democrat.
None of this is a gray area. You either uphold certain basic standards of decency or you don’t. Some who call themselves conservatives have shown that they are nothing of the kind. To be conservative is to be honorable. These are contemptible, partisan hacks. Let’s close with another Ingraham tweet whose cynicism passeth all understanding: “Loyalty…courage…valor…honor…truth…at risk of becoming lost virtues in Washington, DC.”
Published in General
Violence is justified because the actions of the opposition are so egregious as to warrant violence. Whether its Milo Yiannopolous provocations or the temerity of a reporter to ask a politician a question. No, I think I have it exactly right.
But this isn’t merely a case of a reporter asking a question, it’s a reporter, who may or may not have been trespassing (I’m honestly not clear on that,) getting in the politician’s personal space. I’m not denying that Gianforte overreacted, but comparing him to Antifa isn’t even close to being appropriate.
I’m comparing the reaction to what he did, not Gianforte himself.
You should read William F. Buckley.
I own about 7 of his book and I have read some of them twice. What’s your point?
Moderator Note:
The deleted video clip contains profanities, which are a CoC violation.Hmm, the video has disappeared again, even though it violates no C0C provision to post it. No wonder so many Ricochet subscribers seem so ignorant of what’s being done to people outside the garden walls!
Blood is literally flowing, and conservatives don’t seem to be bothered. That’s why you have an alt-right.
[Video deleted.]
Try Saving the Queen. The point is you make a false moral equivalence. He quotes a latin dictum regarding this, so it seems this fallacy goes back at least 2000 years!
There is no sugar coating that this was bad. I would not vote for the guy. You can stop your speech and ask law enforcement that the obnoxious reporter who didn’t understand English be removed. Trump had to do it. And may we remind the big mouths from the left who are spouting how this is the culture of Trump, how their bullying and battering during the election campaign is hardly a good example. However, if you are in or running for public office, you are held to the highest standards.
It’s a necessary but not sufficient condition.
Not really. As far as I can tell, the standards for that have always been pretty low.
Editor Note:
Redacted for wishing violence on a fellow Ricochet member, then name-calling.[Redacted]
I flagged this. We don’t need to talk this way to fellow Ricocheteers, no matter how wrong they can be.
It was disgusting.
Friends, if you do not agree with Mona you do not have to read her columns.
Also this getting in your face and being disruptive is part of the Left’s tactics, antagonize, cause a scene, make sure social media runs with it, and the candidate bought into it. But this is Montana, not LA – my guess is he got more votes for it, not less.
ok – good point there!!
That Guardian reporter should put some ice on it.
Well, I don’t think that’s true of me. I argued that Gianforte’s actions might be justified as a forcible defense of private property against a trespasser who refuses to leave. I’m pretty sure that Antifa doesn’t rely on this reasoning.
You are the exception that proves the rule.
The left has a long history of this type of smear. In the next ten years after JFK’s assassination we heard over and over that the Spirit of Dallas was to blame, as if commies got their ideas from conservatives. Later, everything bad that happened in Southeast Asia was Nixon’s fault. (I guess it was that domino effect they used to ridicule.) During the Reagan years every human tragedy and inconvenience was blamed on the Reagan budget cuts, even as he increased spending. Everything bad that happened during the Bush and Obama years was blamed on Bush. And now it’s the age of Trump. They provide no chain of cause and effect, but associating the name Trump with every bad event is an easy way to smear.
I learned to recognize these techniques from high school classes in which we were taught to recognize propaganda techniques and logical fallacies. All of the textbook examples were of course of conservative illogic and propaganda, but as one of my elementary school teachers had earlier observed, I had a good ability to apply what I had learned.
So applying what I have learned, I blame the violence in Montana on the violent atmosphere created by the Trump street protesters. (If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. )
More Accurate is low-minded, what is the minimal level of conduct that people should be expected to abide by and what should be the consequences for those who don’t measure up?
Why wouldn’t Trumps repeated attacks on reporters be a factor in how reporters are viewed by people?
Reporters don’t need any help convincing people to hate them.
If the enemy brings tanks to the field of battle we better get busy and start either producing tanks or something more lethal. I realize that there are many conservatives who think this is a debating society but they should get a grip.
The right should be treated the same way as the left — if we had referees then we could appeal to them. But, we don’t have referees except the American voter. People on the right want to counsel the people to not vote for someone who does something bad — but the people on the right who think this way only affect the voters on the right. Just like the Nevertrumpers in the election — their biggest influence was on the voters on the right. This all goes only one way — against the values and interests of the people on the right and all of those opposed to the left.
Until the incompetent elites on the right figure out a way to fight these battles we are right to turn to others who can do the job. We need to remove incompetent people from positions of power and influence on the right.
Nonsense. A victory that requires you to abandon your principles is no victory at all.
Through my reading of history I have learned that no group goes through a struggle and emerges as the winner without changing and betraying some of their “principles.” Sometimes it’s even for the better.