Members of a Fox News television crew witnessed the encounter,<br />and in a firsthand account posted on the network’s website, one of the Fox journalists described Mr. Gianforte as “punching the reporter.”<br />“As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ ” according to the Fox News account.<br />Montana Republican Greg Gianforte, Charged With Assault, Awaits Fate in Vote -<br />By JONATHAN MARTINMAY 24, 2017<br />— The Republican candidate in a hotly contested special House election in Montana was charged with assaulting<br />a journalist on Wednesday at what was to be a final rally in Bozeman on the eve of the vote.<br />Should that happen, Mr. Ryan said, then “he has been chosen by the people of Montana.”<br />Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, released a gentler statement on Mr. Gianforte’s apparent eruption, describing it as “totally out of character” and conceding<br />that “we all make mistakes.” But the Montana election, Mr. Stivers said, “is bigger than any one person.”<br />A big part of a public servant’s job is teaching civics.<br />In a sign of the considerable Republican frustration with Mr. Gianforte, Speaker<br />Paul D. Ryan publicly scolded the candidate and said he should apologize.
