Guardian Reporter: Montana GOP House Candidate ‘Body Slammed Me and Broke My Glasses’ (UPDATE)

By Joe DePaoloMay 24th, 2017, 8:04 pm
 

Political junkies around the country have been watching the hotly-contested special election showdown in Montana between Republican Greg Gianforte and Democrat Rob Quist for a vacant House seat. But little did anyone know — if one reporter’s unfathomable claim proves to be true — that the fierce battle would include actual wrestling.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, claimed on Twitter that he’d been physically bodyslammed by Gianforte.

Whitney Bermes of the Bozeman Chronicle, and Blake Montgomery and Alexis Levinson of Buzzfeed tweeted their accounts from the scene:

On April 28, the Guardian published a story written by Jacobs in which it was reported that Gianforte had financial ties to Russian-based companies.

UPDATE 8:20 p.m. ET — The Guardian has filed a report on the incident, and has shared the audio, which can be found at the top of this post.

UPDATE 8:40 p.m. ET — The Gianforte campaign has put out a statement on the incident, offering a very different account, though the campaign admits that Gianforte attempted to grab the reporter’s phone.

[image via screengrab]

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Joe DePaolo is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: joed@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @joe_depaolo