GOP candidate charged with assault on reporter as newspapers pull endorsements

Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte was charged late Wednesday with misdemeanor assault after witnesses said he “body-slammed” a reporter for the Guardian who had been trying to ask him about the GOP’s health-care bill.

On Thursday, hours before polls were set to close in the special election for Montana’s lone congressional seat, Republican leaders criticized Gianforte and three of the state’s largest newspapers rescinded their endorsements of his campaign.

“There is no time where a physical altercation should occur,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said at his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill. “It should not have happened. Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, I think he should apologize.”

Asked twice whether Republicans would let Gianforte join their House conference, Ryan said they would. “I’m going to let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative,” he said.

Gianforte canceled a television appearance on MSNBC scheduled for Thursday night amid reports that Montana voters were calling state and county election officials in the hopes of changing their early votes. A spokeswoman for the Montana secretary of state’s office said they had received a dozen phone calls from voters on Thursday morning.

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